November 16, 2013

ISIQ-0308

“Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.” – Euripedes

This week has thrown up a few new challenges for my wife and me. It’s not appropriate to go into details, but let’s say for simplicity and honesty that one of our close relatives has been diagnosed with something loosely considered “pre-cancerous”.

As you might be aware, Belinda is a Health and Wellness Coach. We have both, for a long time, considered the body to be a marvel of self-healing, self-correcting engineering. As a result, we also both believe there is far more to health and well-being than what is considered absolute fact by modern Western Medicine.

We posit, at the very least, that there are several ways to improve, treat, or cure any illness or disease. We simply might not know all of them yet.

This afternoon a meeting was held, a booking was made for rather dramatic surgery on a pre-emptive basis, and my wife and I shook our heads in disappointment. Two things were apparent to Bel, as she attended the meeting.

  1. Fear was used in copious quantities to steer our relative towards surgery.
  2. The doctor was visibly affronted that someone wouold dare question the process, the guidelines, and the proposed treatment regime.

Like I said, we both shook our heads in disappointment.

Part one of today’s quote: Question everything.

Especially when there are high stakes, like life, health, or the possibility of going under the knife for surgery.

Maybe there are better alternatives. Maybe there are new treatments. Maybe there are risks and benefits on both sides of the equation that need to be weighed up and assessed.

 

Part two of today’s quote: Learn something. 

Bel’s role in all of this has taught her an amazing amount about cancer treatments, including statistical likelihoods of this particular pre-cancer condition evolving into actual invasive cancer (really low, but also completely uncertain and very poorly documented).

There’s always a lesson. If nothing else, this is the kind of learning that will serve Bel well in her role as Health & Wellness Coach.

 

Part three: Answer nothing.

In my mind, this is not an opportunity for doctors and figures of “power” to simply dictate the course of action without scrutiny, or being questioned or challenged.

However, this is definitely an opportunity for us to find our own beliefs and be able to stand strong within them. We are answerable to no-one but ourselves. We are free to make choices for our own lives, our own bodies, and our own courses of action.

Always remember that, and never discount the power and value of that freedom.

This applies as much to Bel and I, as it does to our relative. The kicker is this: We need to – and have chosen to – respect the choice of our relative in this situation. They have every right to answer to themselves only, just as we do.

It’s a heavy situation, full of lessons, and full of opportunities to test out our own belief systems.

 

Phew. A bit of a deep offering today. Let me recap by simply saying that we are fine, our relative is fine (at the moment) and we’re taking the days as they come.

I hope you enjoy your weekend, and I hope you find some perspective in today’s ramblings.

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.

Not a bad motto for life, really.

 

With love,
Israel. xo

 

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