Doing donut tracks on 2020
The longest year in memory will soon be in the rearview mirror; let's go out in style
vol. 2 issue 61
Greetings,
Soon we will see in our collective rearview mirrors the roadkill that has been 2020. Maybe let’s do a few donuts first. Lay down some tracks just to show this year we still have some style.
Then, let’s floor it and get the hell out of here.
In January, I’ll be back with more “healing the american states of mind” videos, podcasts, and essays, as well as a new series that is focused entirely upon healthcare.
Much of what you enjoy here at docu-mental will be for patron subscribers only starting next month, so if you’ve not become a patron subscriber, please consider doing so.
Thank you again to those who have just begun or who continue to materially support docu-mental’s innovative thinking out loud on what it means to be an american and how it impacts our individual states of mind. Next year, we’ll cover the steps for an actual process for creating herd immunity to anxiety and depression™ that these past two years have helped me develop.
I’ll also be breaking down for everyone just what “herd immunity” actually means, and how it is supposed to operate. It’s not supposed to be passive inaction, a la this administration’s pandemic response, but active prevention.
Some of the interviews I have already recorded or scheduled include a visit from the Lakota Nation to hear thoughts on bridging Western and white with Native and nonwhite cultures through music and holistic points of view. Also, a chat with a woman who was so fed up with the poor level of knowledge among mental health professionals for how to effectively treat borderline personality disorder, she created her own modality and now teaches it to clinicians and lay persons alike. And – she isn’t the first one to have done so.
Plus, a discussion with Victoria Sweet, MD, author of God’s Hotel and Slow Medicine. Dr. Sweet threw me a curve ball when I interviewed her…I thought we’d be talking about how to subtract profit-driven behavior and add time and attention to hospital care to avoid moral injury of physicians and effect better patient outcomes, and although we did talk about that, there were a few surprises, too…
Our specific topic for 2021 is personalized healthcare: what does that actually mean? We’ll examine what we’ve lost by outsourcing ourselves – our minds, our bodies, our power of decision making – to outsiders who don’t tend to make decisions with our best interests in mind when it comes to our healthcare. That could be the government, that could be CVS, that could be any blob of power that is TOO BIG.
Because if we don’t have control of our bodies, it’s hard to be at peace in our minds…
In the meantime, here’s a list of past docu-mentals that addresses much of what I have chronicled as problematic of a healthcare system where we are told we as “consumers” are the ones in charge, but which is not quite the case.
Even if some of the articles, such as those about the CVS merger with Aetna are no longer newsy, the articles explore how mega-healthcare companies create for us more, not less, stress.
Antitrust and the crushing of physicians' souls
Unless we prevent it, be prepared for mega-mergers worsening trends in physician burn-out
Socialism or CVS? The health giant's plot to take over US healthcare
Plus, what if doctors were contractually bound to cure you, or your money back?
How monopolies have stolen the debate over affordable care
Shave the fluff off the Medicare-for-all debate
It's your problem, which is why the solution should also be yours
The CVS/Aetna deal should be featured in our healthcare debates
The not-so-covert take-over of US healthcare should be top of mind for POTUS wannabes
In any case, let’s not be heavy now. It’s Christmas for many of us, and still a time of holiday cheer for the rest.
Which is why I leave you with the best of wishes for health, wholeness, and hope in your heart, and this silly video. I only wish I spoke Korean!
Gangam Style was the first YouTube video to ever reach a billion views, demonstrating that just like the Year 2020, sometimes things are just so compellingly weird, like a car accident, you just can’t look away.
So, let’s look, let’s let it slip behind us, and let’s roll on.
Peace upon us all in this great and rare land.
Whitney