At a Moment's Notice

The Future is Ours

Health Care - What Happened to the People?

I've been following the Supreme Court's review of President Obama's health care law. They are set to make a ruling this month, either repealing the entire thing or portions of it. As I read the news articles on this topic, I've noticed that they all focus on one primary thing - profit. They look at each scenario and discuss who profits and who doesn't, essentially, who "wins" and who "loses." Funny how we are talking about corporations here, and not people. How do the people "win" and "lose" in regards to the most precious thing given to all of us; our health and livelihood? Without that, we have nothing. What about the individual's profits and losses? What happened to the role of people in this equation? Here's a brief outline of the sections of the article I just read, titled "How Stocks will Fare in Court Ruling on Health Law:"

THE COURT THROWS OUT THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE BUT KEEPS THE REST OF LAW
Hospitals could find themselves in the sick ward.

THE COURT REPEALS THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE AND THE NEW COVERAGE RULES
Insurers would win.

THE COURT REPEALS THE ENTIRE LAW
Insurers focused on Medicaid recipients could lose.

THE COURT KEEPS THE LAW
In a sense, health care companies, and their investors, win.

Each section then describes each scenario and who "wins" and "loses." The entire article can be found here:

http://www.9news.com/money/273998/344/How-stocks-will-fare-in-court-ruling-on-health-law

It is all focused on profit. Nothing like feeling as though my health means nothing and is simply a commodity for someone at the top to make money off of. I realize this article is specifically focused on how the decision on the law will effect stocks. It just makes me angry that access to health care in this country is not a given right to every single citizen, and that it is not equal. We are all a part of the human family, all we have is our life and our health and that we are denied access to health care in this country is absolutely absurd. This is the only industrialized nation who does not offer health coverage to all of its citizens.

Voting this law down will only make us go backwards again. Why wouldn't the American public want to be covered if they have a preexisting condition? Why wouldn't we want our young population and college graduates to remain on their parents' policies until they are 26, while they establish their careers and find coverage on their own? I am always reading about people who disagree so much with Obama's health care plan. Yet, it helps millions of people get access to coverage! It treats ill people as equals to healthy people! I know it requires everyone to get coverage, but it also provides a lot of assistance to those who can't afford it. Obama's plan isn't flawless and I can understand why some people want to make their own decision as to whether or not they are covered, but the rest of us should also be able to get coverage if we want it, and right now that is not an option for many of us either.

A win-win would be to allow those who don't want coverage to decline it and for those who do to have access to it. Why is this so complicated? I guess because eventually, those who are not covered end up needing care and hospitals foot the bill. It all goes back to money and profit, though. If health care was available to everyone, this wouldn't be an issue. We can spend trillions on war, but we can't find a way to make sure every American has basic health care coverage? And it all comes down to profit. Fuck money and big greedy corporations. I belong on a different planet where they don't exist...a place where health and well-being is the top priority, not money, profit and power.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Death and Rebirth

“Sometimes the one who is running from the Life/Death/Life nature insists on thinking of love as a boon only. Yet love in its fullest form is a series of deaths and rebirths. We let go of one phase, one aspect of love, and enter another. Passion dies and is brought back. Pain is chased away and surfaces another time. To love means to embrace and at the same time to withstand many endings, and many many beginnings- all in the same relationship.” 
~Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Do Something or We're Screwed

Roberts' "Do Something or We're Screwed" article at grist.org: http://grist.org/climate-change/climate-change-is-simple-we-do-something-or-were-screwed/

This is a great article and video. I get so tired of the arguments that arise about climate change. It doesn't matter if it is human-caused or a result of the climate naturally changing. Either way, we have to adapt in order to survive. My personal opinion is that even if the Earth is naturally warming, we are contributing to and accelerating that process at unprecedented rates. An introductory geology course taught me how the various cycles on this planet work, most notably the hydrological cycle, carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle, all of which effect the atmosphere. We are certainly changing these cycles drastically, especially the carbon cycle. I don't understand how people can believe that our actions do not have a negative impact on the delicate balance on this planet that allows life to survive. Just the fact that we have not found life on any other planet that we have been able to study, goes to show how amazing, miraculous and delicate life is. Period. The conditions have to be so precise. We have become so consumed in our daily lives that we often fail to look at the larger picture, including how amazing and wonderful this planet and all of life is. We often take life itself for granted. It makes me sad to think about what kind of future we are leaving for future generations and inhabitants of this planet. If we are wrong about our impacts on the Earth, that's fine, but if we are correct, it's ridiculous that we are not doing more to change that. It doesn't seem like something worth taking a chance on. It seems best to err on the side of caution; that we are causing damage. It's obvious in some ways, such as deforestation. We need to quit putting ourselves at the center of everything. Without the health of the planet, our health suffers. There are many things that are in our control, in the power of our own hands, and like David Roberts says, we need to do something or we're screwed.

New Growth

“Detach yourself from circumstances that no longer sustain you. Surround yourself with fresh thoughts, new challenges, nourishing relationships and fresh knowledge. Otherwise, your growth will stagnate and eventually draw to a halt.” -Vivian Elizabeth Glyck

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives – Sioux Proverb

"Our consciousness is fed with other consciousnesses. The way we make decisions, our likes and dislikes, depend on the collective way of seeing things. That's why selecting the people you are around is very important." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Crossroads

The video below provides a summary from a recent scientific paper from the journal, Nature. The article can be found here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v486/n7401/full/nature11018.html

 We can either start making decisions now to preserve our resources and planet, or suffer the consequences, those are really the only two options...

 

We are all dying...

Not the funnest thing to contemplate, but it's true...we are all dying. Therefore, I want to be as happy as I can be during this short time that I have here. Sometimes I feel like life is full of struggles, constantly. Some struggles are not necessarily in our control, but how we respond to them is. How we live our lives and the intentions we set are in our control. I'm going to venture to say that our thoughts, attitudes and intentions have a lot to do with our happiness in this life. Since our time here is limited, I want to spend as much time as possible in a place of joy, peace and contentment. I have some work to do.

I stumbled upon a very cool article by Bonnie Ware, called "Regrets of the Dying." As a woman who worked with people who were living the last weeks of their lives, she brilliantly started asking them what their regrets were and wrote about it. Bonnie began to see themes and commonalities in what people regretted most. The top five are as follows:

1. Failing to live a life true to oneself. 

This included having many unfulfilled dreams, which was usually a result of one's own actions. This was the most common regret. To me, the most striking words from this section are: "Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it." It's amazing how much we all take for granted. It's also amazing how often we do not live life true to ourselves.

2. Working too hard. 

This included missing out on important life events and the depths of relationships, while instead spending so much time working. All of the time we spend will never come back to us, ever. So spending it in a way that is not fulfilling for so many hours a day is heartbreaking. One way of changing this, as Bonnie mentioned, is to simplify one's life so that we are not so dependent upon income and work. This frees up more time to spend on those things we find enjoyable, healthy, creative, etc.

3. Not expressing one's feelings fully. 

This is definitely one I've felt as the result of losing loved ones. Taking a look at it from the other angle, as in one's own death, it becomes equally important to always be honest with one's self about what we are feeling and expressing those feelings in the most appropriate way.

4. Losing touch with friends. 

Bonnie explains that people really miss their friends when they are dying and regret getting so caught up in their own lives, that they let friendships fade and even disappear. People regret not making time for friendships and not putting more effort into them. The words that really had a deep impact on me were: "It all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships." Not money, not success, not belongings...

5. The wish to have let oneself be happier. 

This seems like such a simple thing, but when it comes down to it, it can be very challenging, for a multitude of reasons. One reason specifically mentioned in the article, is fear of change. Getting stuck in old patterns and believing the illusion that one is happy in comfort, when in reality, one is not. "Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice." Amen. This is why I'm writing this post. I am witnessing areas in my life where the happiness factor could be turned up a few notches, and I'm feeling frustration that I feel this way. There's only one choice; do something about it. Time ticks away at an amazingly fast pace, there's no time to waste; no time to waste in achieving true happiness and living a life as true to oneself as possible.

Please visit the following page to read Bonnie's entire article:http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time"
~Thomas Merton