Consider if you will the four characters Veruca Salt, Mike Teevee, Augustus Gloop, and Violet Beauregarde. Just how do they differ from their counterpart Charlie Bucket? Do you even have any idea what I am referring to? If not, the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory featured Gene Wilder as the eccentric candy maker Willie Wonka. The 5 above named children earned golden tickets to take a tour of the fantastical wonder that was Wonka’s chocolate factory. Spoiler alert!! In the end Willie gives the entire factory including the Great Glass Elevator to Charlie Bucket. Charlie had that special something that none of the other kids had. While it is true that Veruca was a spoiled bad egg, Mike was a TV addict, Augustus was a glutton and Violet was an obnoxious gum chewer, what set Charlie apart from them was something that is really missing from the hyperspace world of today. We live in the age of sound-bites, the world of Facebook, of instant messaging, 24 hour a day news, satellite transmission, a world in which when we pause for a moment in line at the grocery store or sit down with a cup of coffee, we log into our email, check our text messages, read the latest post or blog. Our world today is summed up when Veruca declares to her daddy “I WANT IT NOW!!” The thing that Charlie had that those other 4 kids did not and that is largely lacking in the 21st century is something called patience.
(And if you skipped any part of the last paragraph you are just reinforcing my argument. I thank you.)
If I have learned one thing in my decades treating people is that health and healing do not fit into the 21st century model of quick and speedy everything, the era of impatience. When the 21st century American gets sick, what he wants is to go to the medical doctor, get a pill, take the pill, get well, and move on. Sometimes that model even seems to work, particularly when we are young and when the health problem is not serious. But what about the four conditions that effect more Americans than any other conditions; back pain, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes? What about a thousand other chronic conditions, any two of which you are likely to have to deal with in your life? (Fun fact - I’ll bet you didn’t know that the average human dies with a minimum of 2 diseases inside his/her body, according to autopsy studies.)
What those four conditions and nearly every other chronic condition have in common is that once you have them they will always be in your life, they require a long-term plan to overcome, manage, and prevent recurrences. They require life-style changes to be adopted by you, and sometimes right now. They require what the 21st century has ill prepared us to have, patience.
And with regard to the spine, this is the reason why I spend so much time educating you about subluxation, about spinal damage, about the effects of time, life, and gravity. This is why I encourage you to do my disc pump exercises every day for the rest of your life. This is why I have three types of care and three different fee schedules. This is why I am a chiropractic patient myself getting adjusted every week, doing my disc pumps every day, and doing all the other stuff I do to help prevent and manage my current and future health. I have learned patience. I look to the future for my health. Health is indeed a marathon.
(And if you skipped any part of the last paragraph you are just reinforcing my argument. I thank you.)
If I have learned one thing in my decades treating people is that health and healing do not fit into the 21st century model of quick and speedy everything, the era of impatience. When the 21st century American gets sick, what he wants is to go to the medical doctor, get a pill, take the pill, get well, and move on. Sometimes that model even seems to work, particularly when we are young and when the health problem is not serious. But what about the four conditions that effect more Americans than any other conditions; back pain, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes? What about a thousand other chronic conditions, any two of which you are likely to have to deal with in your life? (Fun fact - I’ll bet you didn’t know that the average human dies with a minimum of 2 diseases inside his/her body, according to autopsy studies.)
What those four conditions and nearly every other chronic condition have in common is that once you have them they will always be in your life, they require a long-term plan to overcome, manage, and prevent recurrences. They require life-style changes to be adopted by you, and sometimes right now. They require what the 21st century has ill prepared us to have, patience.
And with regard to the spine, this is the reason why I spend so much time educating you about subluxation, about spinal damage, about the effects of time, life, and gravity. This is why I encourage you to do my disc pump exercises every day for the rest of your life. This is why I have three types of care and three different fee schedules. This is why I am a chiropractic patient myself getting adjusted every week, doing my disc pumps every day, and doing all the other stuff I do to help prevent and manage my current and future health. I have learned patience. I look to the future for my health. Health is indeed a marathon.