Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Survival and Healthcare

To describe the picture (left) that I took on Friday, I could possibly write ad nauseum about the invasive canary grass that is overtaking the lake, snubbing out the valuable native foliage and making it impossible for endangered fish to swim through. In some ways: it resembles our struggling economy.

Yet what I loved about this picture is how the geese are making a rest area out of it and thriving. [Taking a bad situation and making it work for them.]

Now this next photo regards a park in Bellevue, Washington. It used to be a field overtaken by invasive Himalayan blackberries. When volunteers began removing the brambles - they found this flowering red currant, a native plant, struggling for life in the midst of so many
thorns. Talk about overcoming so much oppressive chaos! Look closely at this (click on the photo to enlarge). See how the sunlight could not get through to its lower stem, and how crooked the bush grew to reach the light (before the invasives were removed)?

This plant kept on growing/living no matter how bleak life seemed but other natives were not so lucky, obviously.

HOW THIS RELATES TO US
I'm thinking about socialized "health-care." It's a topic that makes the rich choke/those migrating geese who seem to support the status quo. (E.g., I know someone who receives insurance and goes to the doctor three times a week for superficial/cosmetic or massage services and I know her sibling who does NOT receive medical insurance at all, he cannot afford dentures when teeth were lost to a bone disease).

SOMETHING ELSE I REALIZE
Just a few hundred years ago: insurance was non-existent. Our ancestors treated their illnesses with herbs and were very deeply connected to authentic food sources from Earth. I strongly feel we as a people need to get back to our roots in this regard (go to the doctor's office much less often and learn how to provide remedies for ourselves).

Nowadays everyone EXPECTS traditional health-care as a "right" and that makes me think even more deeply about how effectively society has taught us (over this past century) to remain reliant on the government/others for rescuing us from our own demise.

On an ethical basis -- having knowledge for saving someone's life (and not doing it) seems utterly cruel and heartless. So we as a country must find a way to strike some sort of realistic balance.

ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION
Since the world has replaced our historic "tribe" and the global community has replaced our watchful neighbors from the past . . . the world needs to step up, and fulfill its role as the new community and become that conscientious mentor. I propose that our government begin to utilize the free education system to teach all people how to heal themselves with folk remedies. Then - universal health-care can be afforded for treating people on an emergency and life-saving basis.

LONG STORY SHORT: These are trying times we live in. Like the flowering red current (pictured above) we can struggle to make it on our own -- and one or two of us might survive. Yet how much better to remove the obstacles that snuff-out the sort of livelihood that would benefit us all (not just benefit the few wealthy who flock together, like the geese, and then have the ability to fly away when times get too hard).

Knowledge is power!

What motivated this entry: A good friend called yesterday to ask what herb she could possibly use to resolve her cat's mouth sore. Already she's spent hundreds of dollars at the veterinarian office to no avail. THAT is only part of what inspired this topic for today. Perhaps you can think of an even BETTER solution than the one I've proposed.

7 comments:

Fijufic said...

Valid thoughts. You have been a part of what has let me keep my wits about me. I have been as crazy as ever and the world has been spinning wildly out of control in many ways.

Still at the end of the day I am okay and expect the future to be bright.

It gets better from here I am certain. In terms of insurance that is a good point.

Arawn Graalrd said...

If the Geese could not exploit the invasive Canary Grass, where would they go?

The Evil of the Asian Longhorn Beetle could also be seen as part of Gaia's Immune System, eliminating the unfit trees, for the more healthy. Unfortunately, Worcester is a City, and a questionable environment for Gaia's more healthy.

The Norwegian Maple was planted as Monoculture, after a Hurricane of 1955 deforested the urbascape, and these are being removed as too monocultural to resist invasive insects. Both Beetle and Maple are being seen as invasive enemy, and visiting teacher.

Amazon has some copies of Thornton Wilder Trio, and Stories of Thornton Wilder, and I'd like you to read at least, The Cabala, and the Pulitzer prize winning, Bridge of San Luis Rey, so you can discuss these with the late author personally, when you come east.

Meanwhile, I'll be working with Kali-Ma, to solve the immigration problem, which is, "if we're to respect the immigration of our ancestors, how do we maintain a competant ballance?"

Arawn Graalrd

SunTiger said...

Fijufic ~ I feel so honored to think that I might have any influence in helping you, Bobby. [Thank you for that compliment.] Truth is the world has ALWAYS been out of control (we were just living in denial and assuming we had control before). The trick is to "FREE FLOW." Float with the changing waves and use that current power to our benefit (paddling in the direction we want to go WITH the changes) instead of fighting directly against it.

Arawn ~ Geese thrive amongst native foliage (as do all other native animals). Most of the native animals cannot seem to thrive in Canary Grass, however. I don't think the trees must be "unfit" for a swarm of beetles to destroy it (I'll have to read up on that).

Thank you again for your comment. :D

Mhairead said...

Another great and interesting post all your posts always get me nodding my head in agreement, as I read I thought about this country our NHS and the history of health care around the time of Culpepper, if you have not read about him I urge you to google and explore as his story is fascinating. I have used herbs and homeopathy in addition to other healing alternatives and I intend to empower myself more and more with learning especially as I grow older..we rely to heavily on the system of pharmaceuticals which is so unethical in its business, in so many ways. I am thinking- as I head for the menopause years- of how many women have had unnecessary hysterectomies and are talked into taking HRT. I really hope to be able to steer a true course of health through it. Blessings to you Sun Tiger.

SunTiger said...

I am very familiar with Culpepper (as his story relates to the study of herbs).

I'm on hormonal replacement therapy as of a few months ago (started it when I realized I was NOT feeling in control of my own emotions -- did not recognize myself for such enormous reactions to little things). I feel very thankful for traditional medicine and all the wisdom it has to offer. Meanwhile -- as you suggest -- consumers need to be educated because the system is corrupt, indeed.

Arawn Graalrd said...

HRT? Ack! This'll make an interesting discussion, when I introduce you to Aradia... If The Change deprives you of emotional control, it might be you also lack control of your Sexuality, and therefore also your Death and Diet. Sangraal should remedy that, so we'll have to have lunch, when you get out here.

I've just been hunting for a website, unsuccessfully, which catalogs all the Strip Mines in the US. I'm forming a buisiness plan, which'll create an industry, of Amateur Strip Mine Rehab, as Patch Adams builds me a Hogwarts. It seems that Strip Mining is such an ecotastrophe that, if coal companies had to pay the social cost of their industry, the northeast would be one of the world's historic ghost towns. Excuse me, we'd be a Ghostal Community.

We have a lot of industries that run on a basis that someone can promote them, but the general promotion of Wisdom, by which good trees are nurtured, and appropriate horses are grazed. The Oklahoma Dust Bowl was a matter of Swedish Grass being grown, for quick fodder, which wasn't fit to hold the soil through the summer, and the judgement to predict and moderate is going to require initiative, imagination and patience, in ways that normal humans would find un-natural. How do we make Wisdom and Judgement into natural phenomena, rather than invasive plagues?

I was just reading about Naked Came The Stranger, in which a group of Journalists tried to write so badly, that it could only sell by sexual content. I'd read the book, and the sexual content wasn't really its strong suit. It was written by Journalists, who'd been trying to write badly, but didn't understand what made them good enough, that the proof readers were commercially affordable; what they rewrote as Too Good, was likely just Too Austentacious, and the result was actually a nice morality tale.

Is that Austen or Osten? I think I just repronounced AustenTexas, which is a city in the great state of Tacious.

Anyways, I'm thinking that Thornton should redevelop as a writer, by helping her fellow homeless tell their stories, and helping other growing writers. I'm developing a theory, that Idiocy is a level of proffessional development that should actually be nurtured; an expert would deprecate someone as an idiot, as if it were a bad thing, but a Proffessional would see the need for Novices.

A Proffession is actually a brotherhood, with the ancestral brethren of that proffession being of actual devine rank. An expert would be respected by the competant, of that proffession, but a proffessional would want to recruit new brethren, for their gods. So a proffessional writer would cause idiots to plague the mere experts, the way Hubbard caused Scientologists to plague Psychiatry.

I'm sometimes amazed what I learn, when I try to help others.

Arawn

SunTiger said...

Arawn ~ You seem to suggest someone DOES have control over their death??? (hmmmmmmmm).

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