Jerry,
<< The gurus in health often make a difference.>>
I think that this is not really the issue. There are two issues that are
of concern.
1. Whether it is possible to be a highly visible health advocate, and
tell the truth about the complexity, subtlety, and unpredictability of
human health; and not give in to the pressure to pretend that you are
ever anything more than one more person with some ideas still in
development.
2. How to get people to TRUST THEIR OWN THINKING, instead of assuming
that any "expert" of any stripe - including MD's, shamans, shrinks,
diet gurus, authors, supplement companies, or Aunt Betty - that any of
these can think about your health better than you yourself can. How to
get people to stop "worshiping" other people and allowing themselves to
be seduced by the temptation to not have to think about the difficult
subject of their health, make their own hard decisions, do
trial-and-error "detective" work, not know answers, having to stumble
around in the amorphous "grey area" instead of the illusory
"black-and-white" realm of the "experts."
<< Average MD dies in their 50s, one of the shortest lived
professions--- so much
for scientific healing, >>
Not that I am a staunch defender of MD's, but I would like to point out
that in many of the helping professions there is an ethic of helping
others at the expense of one's own welfare. There are many MD's who have
big hearts and have helped many, many people, but who neglect their own
health completely, and die young of the horrific stress of the
profession. Furthermore, MD's are not trained in what we call today
overall "wellness," where such things as stress, emotional balance,
excercise, and other lifestyle issues are part of the picture. They are
not trained to be overall models of health - inspirational role-models
or leaders in that respect. They are trained to be technicians, or
craftsmen, so it's not appropriate to judge them by other standards.
<< if you consider modern medicine scientific, which I don't >>
It is an attempt to be scientific.
<< the bottom line is that they were all human. They all died or
will---- it is a
sure thing.>>
Is death necessary? That is still debatable.
<< Some of their information may be good, we all have to judge for
ourselves.>>
That is in my mind the very best attitude. That some of their
information is good and useful, and some is not, its that simple. This
is true for MDs and any other person or expert or guru.
<< but if we truely looked at it scientificly and observed the lives of
those
that practice what they preach, we would never go to an MD again! >>
Like I said above, they are really not trained to "preach" anything, and
its an error to look to them for inspiration of this sort. You need to
find inspirtaiton elsewhere, or better still, BE the inspiration for
other people.
<< And I do know that in Hunza land, the stepps or Russia and in the
Andes where people live to be over 100 very commonly that they have one
thing in common---- no doctors. >>
They also have other things in common that are probably much more
important factors in their good health and longevity. Things like
adequate rest, a stress-free life, marriage, closely knit community,
daily vigorous excercise in the outdoors, and healthy diets.
<< I like my gurus--- particularily those that agree with me--- dont
you? >>
Heroes are useful as inspirations - but only as long as you remember
that you are looking at a mere person who, like you or me, has all KINDS
of problems, confusions, inadequacies, stupidness, petty concerns,
irrational thinking, ego problems, incompetence in most areas of life,
rigidities, and areas of completely blind obliviousness.
If you can remember that in all likelihood your "guru" is EVEN more
mixed up than you yourself, then I think maybe you're safe. ;-D
Love, Liza
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