A House Divided...

Friends:

Before I get into the blog for today, I want to make you all aware of a potentially wonderful new website. The site is called "Health Reform GPS" and is a product of the George Washington University Law School and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The site is set to track health reform implementation, and it appears to be robust. Check it out today, and add consider adding it to your "favorites" button on your browser - I think you might look at it frequently; I know I will be. (Access the site at: http://www.healthreformgps.org/?cid=xem-emc-ca)

My thought for today is about Abraham Lincoln's famous quote dealing with how a house divided can not stand. He was using the metaphor in relation to the events leading to the Civil War. I'd like to spend some time with them today in relation to how a lack of attention to spiritual development allows for our dis-ease, which leads to unhealthy behaviors.

For a long time, really since the Enlightenment, spiritual development has been on the wane, while the development of the scientific method and physiologic-basis for disease waxed. This imbalance between spirit and science has become so marked that, from a health and wholeness perspective, we are now living in a "house divided". Our scientific community spends all their collective time and effort (and our money) on developing the newest "pill for the ill". We are so skewed in this direction that each year we see medications developed to treat illnesses we don't even know we have (a treatment in search of a disorder). The division has become so extreme that even our clergy, just a few decades ago the healthiest profession, now are the least healthy.

So, how to we regain some balance, or at least start to move the balance back toward neutral? I think the first way is to acknowledge that the scientific method, while tremendously important, can never answer all the questions that come during life or solve all the ills of humankind. Our endless search for meaning through explanation of the intricate details of life has extended our lives, but hasn't brought any "life" to that living. We measure "Quality Adjusted Life Years" but can't agree on just what measure of "quality" is important. Science can only take us so far - because science can't stand unknowing. We have knowledge, but we lack insight.

In spirituality, the mystical literature of the Abrahamic faiths (as well as many others) leads us in a experiential journey with the "Other". These experiences point us in the direction of self knowledge and insight, which can lead to healing and wholeness. Once we discover that we are not the center of the Universe, nor are we God, then we can put away the hypocrisy of the secular world and begin to develop a healthy self-concept and a reality-based approach to living. Understanding ourselves as interdependent beings who rely on each other for support and community, clears the way for an exploration of what it means to live in a healthy and whole society.

Possibilities Journey, Inc. (www.possjrny.org) exists for just this kind of exploration. We believe in the power of medicine and in the study of science, while balancing that with the equal importance of self knowledge and insight that comes from exploring connection, coherence, agency, blessing and hope (from the book, "Leading Causes of Life", by Gunderson and Pray). Life comes when we truly connect to each other, share an understanding of who we are and for what we're created to do, create energy to do healthy things, embody blessing for those who interact with us, and discover that through the interaction of all of this that hope is created. The house becomes whole and we can stand all of the things that life brings.

I encourage you to look at your own "house". Is it divided between too many competing worldly pursuits? Are you spending all of your health time at the gym, and none with the "Other"? Do you see yourself as part of a larger whole? How comfortable are you with not knowing? Come with us at PJ an explore these and other topics. Come journey towards wholeness.

Peace,
Dan