There is a relatively recent development in healthcare called “functional medicine.” As I understand it and am experiencing it, functional medicine seeks the cause of health concerns before trying to treat the symptoms of health concerns. It’s not that a stomach ache can’t be treated, but the functional health practitioner wants to find out what is causing the stomach ache in the first place and treat that cause.
We can make the same analogy to spirituality. I understand spirituality to be how people make meaning in their lives. No religion required. From this standpoint, anyone who is attempting to make meaning in their lives is practicing spirituality whether they use that word or not.
The conflict between groups of people in our nation right now likely comes down to several causes, but one is raising its head for me. Some people look to authority to make meaning in their lives by using it to treat symptoms, and some people look to empathy to make meaning in their lives and address causes. Those who look to authority seem oblivious to how it affects other human beings. They want certain “symptoms” of an imperfect nation to just go away. Those who look to empathy are aware of authority and want to use it to make sure that everyone is safe and secure by addressing the causes of our problems. Making meaning around authority is short-sighted, naturally divisive, and ultimately destructive as it tends only to immediate difficulties. Making meaning around empathy is complicated, requires a long game, but holds real promise for everyone.
A majority of our population is willing, at least for now, to try and make meaning around authority, treat symptoms, and fail to see that doing so will just create more problems. Perhaps not surprisingly, functional healthcare is also in the smaller voice for now, but it is growing.
Meanwhile, empathy still has its call, its meaning, and can still yield its effects for our nation. Do you hear the call? Are you in for the long game?
~Bob Patrick
