This is Memorial Day weekend in the United States. This is a time when we honor the military service of so many who have fought in the name of freedom.
What is freedom? While its essence is the same everywhere, the expression of freedom looks different in different fields.
In my profession of medicine, freedom is the freedom to choose treatment or not based on good information. It is the freedom of informed consent. And lately, freedom in medicine has started to include the freedom to choose how we are represented and seen. This is what we call integrative medicine, which represents a human being more generously than the atomistic model of balls and sticks we find in allopathy.
This freedom of choice, freedom to consent or not, and even the freedom to choose how we are seen are the powers we have within ourselves to outshine the story of mechanization that is increasingly hypnotizing our society. In the name of scientific advancement and technological wonder, we are slowly but surely roboticizing ourselves as we march towards dystopian immortality, guided by the word of The Science, even as journal editors lambast the corruption in medical research.
See the post below. Head transplants? Is this really where we want to go? Yes, we can help some people, and surely that will be the narrative that drives such things forward, but will we talk about the relatively simple things that will help millions, even billions, heal? Will we use our resources to make those things easier?
To connect.
To love.
To see.
To exhale.
To breathe.
For billions of people, not just a few.
Not just when it's time for a speech or the next social media post.
If not, what are we doing? Whose narrative are we choosing?
We live in a beautiful world today where the entire notion of leadership is in play. Watch the ones who have assumed leadership in every field. Notice their actions, and whether they lead to freedom for the many, because that's what people have fought and died for.
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