Talking about Unsustainable!

When was the last time you have been in a nursing or elderly care “home”? Or maybe I should ask: “When was the first time?”

OK, a couple of suspected facts:

Many of the nursing homes, rehabilitation centers for the elderly and elder care facilities 

are listed of the NY Stock Exchange! These places are first: Profit Centers!

These homes send “patients” to the hospital for bladder and other infections and then upon return can bill Medicare for substantially higher fees for those elderly people;

The number of these people in “need” of end-of-life care will hugely increase by 2030 and thereby the cost of such care and the burden on the tax payer will increase with leaps and bounds.

These facts alone are kept away from the classroom and kitchen table. No one - well, pretty much so, has family discussions on what to do at end of life! Why not?

IT is a subject (End of Life) just not talked about. We Ooh and Aah about babies, but don’t come with what we do when life is - for all practical purposes - OVER! We, the people keep people alive, if that is what it is, because we don’t want to say

“Good Bye!”

                                    I repeat: We love to say “Hello!” and hate/avoid saying “Good-Bye!”

We, yes we tax payers, allow many of the very elderly people to be “stuffed” in “homes” and then leave the caring to minimum wage earners and we, ourselves are going to the beach or the movies!

Doesn’t this picture appall the reader?

If so, why don’t we talk about this?

If you are willing, contact: Maarten at maartenjp@mac.com

or join Compassion and Choices (compassionandchoices.org)

Extremes vs centered!

Swimmers swim milliseconds faster and thereby set a new world record, runners set minuscule speeding records, jumpers jump 1/4 of an inch higher than anyone ever has, cars drive faster, smoother and with even more sophisticated hardware, scientists discover even smaller living parts, medical companies come up with ways to make us all live even longer .... we think in terms of smaller, larger, grander, safer, faster, slicker, more comfortable. Everyone seems obsessed to create the most extreme in whatever.
Millions, no, even billions of dollars are at stake. To what purpose?

Another question is: "How essential are these extreme accomplishments?"
The Olympic Games are all about sensationally small increments of speed and distance with the latest aerodynamics in clothing and shape, and the winners have a chance to pick up lucrative endorsements.

AND SO WHAT!!!!

Have we passed the "reasonable" limit and are we omitting looking at the essentials of life?
The above accomplishments seem to emphasize the superficial.
What about being (extremely) nice to one another, generous to our neighbors, complimentary where appropriate, attentive to a need?

When I look around I notice little of the latter. Can we come to the center again? Or have we lost our
perspective? This world is SOOO small in relation to the space this world is "floating" in. I'd like us to focus a bit more on what used to be normal: Holding hands, having a substantial conversation, listening, standing still and looking at the beauty of this world, considering our fabulous surroundings and all this without setting "silly" records .

It may not make a lot of money, but understanding who you are ought to be my focus. I am working on being centered. You?