Dear Doctor,
You’ve probably heard it said that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
In Guatemala, a 30 foot mural depicting the Mayan creation story was discovered in a ruined pyramid. The 2100 year old painting, called a masterpiece by experts, closely parallels what Mayan parents tell their children today, though it predates the earliest known artifacts of this type by several centuries.
In a related story, President Bush admitted to wiretapping and intercepting phone calls and emails suspected of being important to our national security. Defending his position as simply part of his job, he has entered into an extremely difficult realm where ethics and circumstances seem to
collide.
What legacy do we chiropractors want to leave? What statement do we, as wellness pioneers, want to last long after we are gone? How can we, when faced with today’s challenges, emerge with valor and congruency while battling the forces that would prevent us from expressing ourselves
effectively?
Is it pompous to think of health and wellness as life-or-death business? If you look at the creation story, in every culture it depicts a mysteriously beautiful conveyance of divine values to people. If you look at wartime thinking and action, it calls for a constant assessment of those values, and movements that reinforce the ultimate consistency and impact of those
values, in the context they are being examined. Considering context is not a copout – it is essential to such a discussion.
In no way can I support invasion of civilians’ privacy, since freedom is what our country was built upon. And, in no way can I rationalize laying back to let our detractors instigate harm against our citizens, since that’s also what our country was built upon. And still, with it all, we must find a way to leave a clear message for our descendants, so they know who we really were, what we stood for, and why. For now, I fear the good we contribute to society may be dwarfed by the damage that we do.
Unless, of course, there’s a path that encompasses all of what has been mentioned here, putting it all in the proper context and lighting the way toward the wonderful future we all want for ourselves and our children’s children. And it’s just possible that the key may be found in wellness.
After all, what is war but a lack of political wellness? And what is the creation story, regardless of which flavor appeals to you, than a course in spiritual wellness? The whole concept of wholeness, of completeness, is designed to incorporate and represent everyone and everything, which if you look closely enough is at the root of these two seemingly disparate news items – finding the continuity of the spiritual underpinnings of a great culture and seeking a level of acceptability in settling differences in the modern era are both founded on an appreciation that there are essential
human values that must be maintained and serve as a checkpoint in our lives and lifestyles.
It is conceivable that, through reasoning derived from chiropractic philosophy and the history of the wellness lifestyle, that some of these age-old questions can be answered. I look forward to the day when there is
no more war, as BJ alluded to, and when marvelous tales of spiritual unfolding are commonplace. It will happen only when we decide that we are no longer willing to settle for less.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
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