Health: What Are We Overlooking?

How much of great value are we missing as we careen through our modern daily lives?  We have information coming at us from every angle—TV, radio, print media, and the Internet.  And if you’re like me, trying to keep track of all that’s happening is a major effort.  There’s a point where it’s easy to feel overload.

And that’s exactly what happened last weekend.  Carolyn and I both felt the need to slow down and do something spontaneous.  So we headed down to the Boston waterfront after church on Sunday.  We were on a “vacationy” mission—a mission to get the best clam chowder (or perhaps I should say “chowdah”) and fish and chips on the planet at our favorite restaurant for that fare—the Sail Loft. We strolled through the Public Garden and Common, Faneuil Hall, and reached our destination.  And the repast lived up to its expectations!

As we leisurely continued back, I noticed a sign for a used bookstore down a very short side street, and thought I should take the time to check it out.  After all, any bookstore is a rare sight these days.

Well, I’m grateful I did.  As I entered Commonwealth Books, I immediately felt this sense of peace—of stillness.  It was as if I had entered a chapel—so palpable was the serene atmosphere.  There were thousands upon thousands of used books—some dating back centuries—organized neatly by subject.

I immediately gravitated to the music section and found a biography about Charles Ives (From the Steeples and Mountains) that was published in 1974—the centenary of his birth.  I quickly tucked it under my arm for purchase as I continued to peruse the store.  A couple of aisles away I found the archetypal bookstore cat, “Dusty,” curled up asleep on a chair.

And then it struck me and struck me forcefully.  Here I was in the midst of this amazing wealth of human knowledge—knowledge that represented the lives and careers of countless individuals on a vast array of worthwhile endeavors—and how much of it would never be accessible to the general public?

These were out-of-print books.  You couldn’t simply go on Amazon and order them.  You couldn’t just head to Wikipedia and find this richness on these subjects.  In our rush to all things new, these treasures would likely be lost to future as well as current generations.

You might be asking “What does any of this have to do with health?”

Daily reports of new technologies and drugs that claim to solve any and all physical conditions are continually heralded in the media.  But I think we owe it to ourselves to stop and ask some basic questions.  Are these “breakthroughs” all really successful?  Or have we become so enamored with the new that we’re willing to just accept them without carefully examining the substance of their claims?

And are older, established methods of health care, such as the system of spiritually-based care that I’ve successfully used for the past 21 years, being overlooked?  Are we missing the richness and possible solutions to health and wellness issues that they offer?

As a growing body of medical research continues to indicate, thought—and not simply new technologies or drugs—can and does have a profound and lasting effect on our health and well-being.

So here’s a final question.  Where does the cutting-edge—the avant-garde in health and humanity’s evolving spiritual understanding of life—actually take place?

We might just have to slow down to see the answer to that one!