I believe that medicine’s potential is much more than the version we see in the world today. A doctor should be an educator with the goal of bringing patients to a place of deeper understanding of who they are in the world. To me, medicine is ultimately about self-empowerment through self-knowledge and growth.
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Of all the messages out there vying for our attention, I’d like to give airtime this morning to healing through being inclusive. Our struggles, failures and traumas are just as vital to our wholeness as are our victories and virtues. Every part ourselves must be be integrated for us to remain whole. And wholeness is the goal. Trust me.
Avoiding our dark and undesired parts (cancellation) may seem enticing, but it doesn’t work. It leaves us fractured and unhealed. The parts of us we dislike most are our greatest teachers. There are vital lessons that we can learn through facing, accepting, integrating, and perhaps ultimately transforming our flaws.
A Washington Post story this week describes the crippling effect of our underfunded and decentralized reporting system on our ability to access the data to help navigate the pandemic. The authors report how due to these inadequacies questions still swirl about:
American officials have often had to look to data from abroad, they say. Critics of the CDC have said that the agency “operates too slowly, as if it were an academic institution and not a first responder in a crisis.” The article serves as an important reminder that our national and global approach does some things well and does some things poorly. Recognizing and embracing this is healthy. It allows for varied opinion.
There are no simple answers to complex problems. We will never get consensus on the complex questions of our time. Spiritual insight will tell you that this plane of existence is imperfect. We will struggle. So please don’t spend too much energy on lamenting the struggle.
The main question should not be how to avoid our suffering or quiet our opponent but how to best practice inclusivity with the recognition that we are collectively only as healthy as the sickest amongst us.
The point of inclusivity is realized when each individual’s inherent value is recognized by the collective. A healthy community then has a chance to be born, as inclusion acts to calm and support each individual through the power of feeling recognized. It’s a form of healing. Then the individual is empowered to contribute to the group.
It’s the same whether this dynamic is inside yourself or in a local community or in national discussions. And it’s the same whether it’s with a group nations working together in a different way, breaking the need to have nuclear weapons arsenals to have value and a voice. You can start with the place you can start with: your own inner landscape.
If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person.
(Traditional Proverb)
If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation, there will be Peace in the World.
Every part of you should have a seat at the table in your internal world. Of course, we then need our internal boss to make order out of what might be a rowdy gathering; but, every aspect being allowedis the main requirement. Inclusivity brings light. Light brings the ability to support others, making a healthy community. And a healthy cycle is born.
It’s not like there’s not a lot at stake. A generation of children is going to need people to make some headway with some of these concepts because the signs are everywhere that the times are traumatic for them. A Philadelphia newspaper reports on the mental health crisis being the true driver behind their hospital bed shortage for their hospital. We can’t spend as much energy on fighting and struggling when there is such important work to be done.
Here’s a message of these times:
Keep Vigilant.
Be open-minded.
Practice kindness.
Start with Inclusivity.
