To the Disenchanted and the Disillusioned

A letter from the rolltopped desk of C.Biscuit….

To the disenchanted and the disillusioned,

Fear not, for there is hope. I, too, have traveled through a road lined with thorns, but spring has come and there are beautiful roses now blossoming amongst the trenches of our health care system. Each rose has a unique story to tell, detailing the fruition within each organization afoot in the fertile ground below. For this, my heart soars. But it wasn’t always this way for this little potentillas; it was a wrought path, challenging a rise above the unrest, allowing illumination only after a retrospective contemplation.

Over the past few years I have discovered many inadequacies within our health care system, and these areas of neglect made me feel disappointed and disillusioned about making change for the better. The items of discord continued to mount, adding more to the side of what was wrong, and less to what was right. For a while, I avoided all media, feeling as if contemporary society could never truly commit to a healthy change of the existing systems, and that investigative reviews would prefer to poke holes in viable solutions, rather than attempt to understand. My myopic view insisted that a benevolent health care system was unattainable, citing that politics and institutions were always about the money and not about providing quality health.

Corruption of values seemed the norm, as were side effects from medications in addition to a continuous progression of chronic and preventable diseases…. At times, the situations made me feel under equipped and overwhelmed, burdened, what could a horse like myself do to create change? If health care is about health, shouldn’t that be the cardinal point for all health-related endeavors? If only they could see and understand that taking care of the individual would in turn, provide a healthier economy, healthier domestic and international relationships, and a savings of money overall! But it was never really about the money for me and would explain why for so many years I grappled with the line for communication to these entities.

During the Dark Ages in search of the Gilded Ages, I coped, bandaged up my wounds, yet continued to persevere, by padding myself with new information and then stepping back into the health care arena for a few more rounds. How did I manage? Anger is the emotion that initially directed me towards health care and kept me at it through this point in my life. And it wasn’t the typical violent or aggressive form, rather my anger manifested as a slow and festering feeling of frustration. However, the fuel of frustration burned me at both ends, scalding my insides, wearing my sanity thin. How could our health care be so misdirected? What was so tantalizing about monetary gain that it usurped basic and sound reasoning? All of these questions remained unanswered for years and smoldered beneath my red badges of courage.

Through all of this, I adamantly focused upon every detail as to why the world appeared built backwards in respect to health care. Hence the hiatus from the media, and in some respects exodus from the southerly foothills of Georgia. I was fed up with stretched medical advice, superficial constructs and quick-fixes, tactics based upon a limited point of view, and all other perspectives that chose to parcel a piece out of the whole picture for diagnosis and treatment. My frustration swelled and my steppenwolf reared its head instructing me to find solace, find a state of balance so that the entire situation could reveal itself to me. I was too emotionally involved to act a part in the play of sustainable health care; my internal biases would interfere and unseat anything I would construct. It took about 5 years of academic isolation in Portland, Oregon (my current stomping ground). And under the direct guise of NCNM and the Helfgott Research Institute: a holistic perspective was finally achieved. All those years of grooming had paid off!

Over the past few months I have began to monitor the activity of negligence and unjust loopholes in our medical systems again, watching the short-sightedness undermine even the best of attempts at correcting the imbalance. Initially, nothing seemed to change, and the litany of “wrongs” continued to heap upon my computer’s desktop, collaging my backdrop with pale unanswered blank stares, all awaiting closure, awaiting solutions of change. Like fatty white deposits, they clogged my thought processes until the day I decided to organize the ideas, categorizing those little white pages in order to sift, refine, and construct conduits where the Pony Express failed to express before. All that was needed was an open line for communication and an impartial ear. Surprisingly the list of “not dones” was exactly the starting point for addressing the necessary change and paved the way for the Helfgottblog. What was at first a clutter of cantankerous confusion turned into a strategy for creating change, clarity was achieved.

My primary focus has, and will always be, about the ultimate goal of a universal and sustainable health care system, but my own limited perspective kept me from figuring out at truly feasible solution! How silly of me to exclude some of the pieces, unknowingly believing that those dark areas could be overlooked in the process of putting the whole puzzle together. So, I give you a distillation of my thought-processes over the last few weeks: how can we effectively relate the message of functional health care to others interested in the same ideal as well as organizations out there to make money?

The two internet solutions resulting from this question were The Vivid Health care Plan and Community Resource page. Both of which are in regards to awareness and facilitating information about viable health care solutions, directing quality care and knowledge to the patient and the entire health care system, from the bottom up. There are still numerous opportunities to make money during this process, for those that like the monetary reward, but these fiscal features will take a backseat to health and prove more lucrative in the long run. The ideas are based upon something sung to the tune of functional health care; it’s that plain and simple, with no strings attached.

My pursuits will continue to grow exponentially, acting as clerk: collecting and providing avenue to those desiring functional health. However, I am still a horse and my animalistic qualities run deep, and my steppenwolf will inevitably resurface in my pursuit to get to the bottom of the details, my absolute attempt to make horse sense out of all this pretense… but that’s okay. I’ll mull on those areas of friction, rein in my focus, and eventually figure out what part it, too, can play in the grand scheme of things. Luckily, my internal struggle led me to where I am today, doing what I’m doing, outlining the silver lining to the clouded view of the health care system at present.

What I enjoy most about the blog is that it provides a dynamic resource for others to see the change that is ongoing both inside and outside the Portland community. All of those unanswered questions that plagued me before have, in fact, found solutions from other compassionate and like-minded individuals. And it feels good to know that this information can be outsourced around the globe and provide knowledge to others who are also seeking answers to some of humanity’s most troubling and problematic sore spots.

So fear not, sit quietly with those areas of unrest, devoid of understanding and no clear direction for solution because one day your thoughtfulness will prove worthwhile in the end. Persevere my friends: the rewards of your journey shall prove abundant and fruitful.

Humbly surrendered to the illuminated light within each of you,
C. Biscuit