Runnin' on Empty August

Runnin’ on Empty

Conversations with Caren Black on the View from Oil’s Peak

August

Dreaming About Good Things to Come

Now I’ve been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is…

Cat Stevens 1971

In this column I have attempted to explain the causes and ramifications of the coming peak in oil production and subsequent energy decline. Whether or not we inform ourselves on this topic, it will occur and will bring consequences. Those who try to be positive and proactive by gathering information often feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the facts they uncover, for it’s impossible to thoroughly research the topic without glimpsing its impact on every aspect of our lives. Preparation seems the only prudent course, the way to prevent unnecessary consequences and mitigate inevitable ones. A crucial part of preparation lies in envisioning positive alternatives – dreaming up something completely different. It’s time to dream about what we could create in a post-carbon world.

Let’s begin with the most vital of necessities, our health. In order to dream a possible future, we’ll need to leave behind our current idea of “health care” with its emphasis on sickness and treatment. Let’s move instead toward “Wellness,” which is our real goal, anyway. Let’s turn our idea of “medicine” on its head, like flipping over an old egg timer, and move from health care that’s about “getting sick” toward health care centered on “staying well,” where getting sick is something to be prevented, not cured.

One thing about my daydreams, though. I’m a Capricorn, so I tend to start with the practical and move out from there. No “Fantastic Voyages.” So, let’s set the stage: When energy and economy decline, we won’t have health insurance. Well, most of us don’t have it now anyway and, besides, who likes all the paperwork? Next, with gas and electricity scarce and expensive, we’ll lose most of the fancy gadgets and many of the medicines we’ve come to expect. Individuals will have difficulty traveling to separate offices and clinics for each doctor, dentist, optometrist, etc., and many of these smaller offices may close. Finally, during hard times, “triage” becomes the rule, where only the most advanced-yet-still-curable cases get medicines and treatments. With all this in mind, come with me as I drift into the future here along the coast, envisioning a Wellness Center.

Since health starts with food, so would our Wellness Center. Imagine a large weekly market in the center of town with foods just-picked, just-caught, just-milked -- all grown, of course, without petrochemicals or fertilizers or the resultant soil depletion. There’s one in Astoria, Warrenton, Seaside, etc. Each market is housed in one of the many large and newly empty downtown buildings, refurbished by people needing work and willing to accept health care in exchange. In the building surrounding the market there are consulting offices, one or two classroom/meeting rooms, an information/resource/media room, a library/reading room, a small whole foods demonstration café, women’s and men’s saunas and Jacuzzis, and perhaps a pool and gym or courts. Outside is a community demonstration garden.

When you travel to town weekly for supplies, you always stop at the Wellness Center. There you purchase fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs, and milk with money or by trading your own handcrafts or work. You may take aerobics, yoga, tai chi, or dance class, listen to a lecture, participate in a workshop, have lunch with friends at the café, sell or trade your own produce, check out books on growing, cooking or preserving food, or on health or physical fitness. Since the Wellness Center is supported by the community, you get access to computers, video and DVD information, the internet and telephones – items no longer accessible to everyone on a regular basis at home. Instead of hundreds of people traveling to half a dozen different health care offices, only the health care providers travel.

Wellness Center basic membership allows you to visit one licensed health care practitioner -- MD, ND, acupuncturist, nutritionist, massage therapist, chiropractor, RN, LVN, dentist, ophthalmologist, optometrist, pharmacist or an herbalist, psychologist, and occasionally a specialist – free each month to monitor your overall health and detour any problems before they take hold. Your health is tracked by computer with input from every health practitioner you see, so that all efforts can be coordinated into a focused plan.

Your basic annual membership fee costs less than most current monthly health insurance premiums. Costs for programs and services at the Center are affordable because community involvement and support in keeping people well is far less expensive than subsidizing them through sicknesses – and far more enjoyable. It’s said that in ancient China, physicians were paid a stipend so long as the patient remained healthy. If the patient got sick, the payment ceased. The doctor’s job was to keep the patient well, to prevent dis-ease.

It’s just a dream, right now, but completely possible. All we have to do is let go of a mindset that isn’t working anyway.

Oh I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it’s going to come