The purpose of life is life. If money were truly worthy of human pursuit, Gates, Buffet, and all the rich would not be giving it away. Preserving life is the worthy purpose of intelligent life. It is the sacred mission fit for humanity and our genius.
With holidays approaching, this seemed like the right topic for reflection to activate change.
We must first fight to preserve life. All else is secondary. Life itself fights for survival from the moment it begins. Life is precious because we know of no other magnificent mystery that matches its grandeur. Nothing like it exists. It is unpredictable. It confuses, uplifts, saddens and creates unimaginable experiences. We don’t know how life started, who created it, how it starts, and what happens when it ends. We have no measure of life’s dimensions. This is why life is precious and priceless. Its value can’t be measured. What price tag is fit of a child who smiles when his mother picks him up for an embrace, or the father’s tears of joy at his daughter’s wedding, or a son’s loss of his father?
Life is larger than life. We are its stewards and protectors as intelligent life ourselves; being anything less would not be worthy of our awesome life’s purpose.
The ironic reality is that tiny humans, limited in size, strength, lifespan, and imagination, are stewards of this massive, awesome, and unimaginably powerful force called life-force. To even imagine that we are capable of putting a price tag on life reflects the arrogance of humanity. Yet, this is exactly what we are doing. Genius mathematicians and statisticians are building models that put price tags on the lifetime value of every human. The money that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are giving away, is what they are chasing on behalf of their companies that have no life force: no heartbeat, no joy, no pain, and no inspiration. Wearing company face masks, professionals are advancing killing persuasions for doctors and healthcare professionals to administer.
The insurance companies and healthcare providers are laying the groundwork to transform doctors and patient care providers into merchants of death. At America’s top medical institutes, rock star doctors are sowing the seeds of new public policy to subtly price life and hasten death in a policy that will disproportionately affect the pool older patients. Bluntly put, the pitch is that we should welcome death rather than fight it. It starts with a push for the evil pitchfork, the Advance Directive, which looks harmless on the surface, but is a Trojan Horse to kill unprofitable patients.
The Advance Directive is the slithery slope. It promotes early death by shaming the poor and old to die:
- Do you have an Advance Directive (when is it okay to kill you)?
- Do your caregivers support your decision to fight to live?
- What hardship will they endure?
- Will they neglect their children?
- Will they lose their job?
- What will happen to their quality of life if you live?
- Do you want your caregivers to suffer losses because of you?
- How will your caregivers remember you if they suffer hardship because of you?
- Is a poor quality of life worthy of living at all?
The poorest, oldest, and sickest, who would need the most attention are also often the least profitable patients. The doctor’s gentle velvet glove, which hides the robotic, steely levers of death, will dispassionately squeeze life. Where the hospital owners and insurance companies pay the doctors on a profit per patient formula, they will make the doctors do their murderous work. These hush-hush whispers of the conscience collisions already happen in the boardrooms today.
Is a grand nation where the world’s best brains gravitate, really killing off the old because they drain profit? When doctors start putting patients in the crosshairs, we know that we have twisted ourselves into becoming a sick nation.
Fortunately, we are better than a “profit-above-everything-else” people. We can and must do better. This is a challenge worthy of the creative, innovative, and compassionate brilliance of humanity.
(1) Allow the doctors and healthcare professionals who don’t believe in fighting off death on behalf of the patient who is willing to fight until the last breath to remove themselves from the patient’s treatment. No human, including a doctor, should judge another on his/her choice to fight a valiant battle with death. If the doctor feels dismissive, judgmental, or opposed to the patient’s fight, he/she should be required to step aside so that another willing doctor with a fighter’s spirit can fight alongside the patient.
(2) Enlist volunteers to care for patients if the family will not step up. Train a new breed of medical care volunteers. Start free certification programs to give them training. Lots of healthy retirees are willing to help and eager to serve meaningful roles. Uplift our entire society by giving the well-meaning, good-hearted people peace of mind that they will be cared for with compassion and love until their final breath.
(3) Funding? Of course, the pragmatic and practical-minded will focus on the cost and forget the purpose: to protest priceless life. Jumpstart with the wealth foundations. Next round: reach the new rich. Finally, give the wealthy retiree volunteers the option to pay for their training. Once the kindling starts this fire, the glow of goodness will ignite a compassion revolution.
Ideally, every human on the planet should be able to access the best healthcare and doctors. Technology tools can make this happen today. What we lack is a vision to mobilize this initiative powerfully enough to defeat the merchants of death, the companies that profit from early death of the poor elderly. A vision to serve every life until it ends on its own accord is what is worthy of humanity, of us.
It’s fashionable for the young ask, would you want to live like that? I have seen that life fights to live. Old people want more years. The arrogance of youth turns humble when the exit shows up on the windshield. Don’t force the poor and the elderly off the road before nature sets their sun.
Send me an email if you are interested in advancing this vision. Make connections, advance the cause, participate.
If you value pursuing an inspirational vision that is worthy of us, read my book: Find Your Everest before someone chooses it for you. It contains my mentors’ wisdom, which is the inspiration to always reach for my full potential. If you can’t afford to buy it, send me an email and I will send you a free PDF.
