with purpose, i do not watch the news or put forth much effort, in general, to stay tuned in to the on-goings of our society at large, or our political system. however, after hearing/reading several mentions throughout the past two weeks about the recently passed health care bill, i feel like writing out a few a thoughts—if only for my own assimilation. one comment that (repeatedly and variably) surfaced during each discussion, in particular, caught my (otherwise waning) attention; “i am powerless.” …intrigue.
rewinding quite a few years to the stretch of time during which i taught high school biology and environmental science. many nights, a quiet desperation accompanied me to bed. i felt the weight of how we are treating and interacting with our planet and, almost constantly, thought about how i could best allocate my energy to help resolve the problems we’ve created. though it never intuitively resonated with me, teaching was where i (logically) thought this energy should be. i spent a great deal of time, with students, presenting and debating issues and sorting out solutions. one question was often asked that spun a certain captivating quality in my mind; “why should i care about things that i don’t have any control over?” hmmm…no control? no direct control, maybe. indirectly, the “control” is very much ours. we vote with our dollars, we vote with our personal practices and the practices we support. each and every purchase we make is a direct pat on the back to the folks or company who put that product and practice on the shelf.
i view a similar situation in health care at the moment. “power” has been, is, and always will be ours. it interests me that our country is so devastatingly unhealthy that people are neck~deep in worry about our health care system and insurance companies. my personal hope is that we “vote” by taking care of our minds, our thoughts, our attitudes, our bodies (and our families) with both the ambition and expectation of negating such a lofty need for an intricate system of “after care.” the more we think/worry about the political infrastructure of health care or any other application in our country, the more power we give away. likewise, the more thought and energy we give to our (collective and individual) ideal scenarios, both for our personal lives and our surroundings, the more we will realize how able and influential we are.
we are far from powerless.
we are power~full.