Life Has Wrinkles You Didn't Even Know About

Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles
Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles everywhere....

I watched my mom and my two year old son singing this song with the motions a few days ago. My son patted his legs along with his grandmother and pointed to the appropriate body part and then turned in a circle and even sang a few of the words. On the way home, from the back seat I heard, "wrinkles wrinkles wrinkles". It was adorable!

I had no idea. I had no idea my son could dance and do motions on cue. We "dance" and "sing" such as it is with a two year old ALL the time. But this was prescribed movements at a pretty fast pace. And I thought it was developmentally beyond him.

But he does this to me all the time. He surprises me. I didn't know I could give him instructions and he would follow them until I saw his daycare teacher doing it. I just didn't even know to ask!

Life is this way sometimes I think. We're living our lives, wrinkles and warts and all and wishing we could do any myriad of things differently. We are in our little boxes that we've been in for years. And wishing our boxes were a different shape or size or that we didn't have one at all!

I want to share a secret with you today: Your box probably isn't even there. It's a figment of your imagination. It's a result of not asking.

Sometimes we just don't even realize an option is open to us. Maybe it's working from home. Maybe it's a different job altogether. Maybe it's your spouse giving you more compliments or taking out the trash. Maybe it's your child being more grateful. Maybe it's taking a class or two. Maybe it's something even bigger. But you have to ask first.

My son has apparently been able to sing and do motions and I just didn't know to ask him to do it. You have a world of opportunities open to you that you just don't know to ask for. You've already assumed they're off limits for you. They're not.

So today, dream. Think of what it is you aren't even considering an option that you really want. And then ask for it. Try for it. Maybe you are the only one holding you back! (And then I'd love to hear about it if you'd come back and let me know!)

To Care or Not to Care

That really IS the question. It all comes down to care or not. What kind of nation do we want to be? What kind of individual do you want to be? Because right now it's what we're deciding.

At the core of what we are talking about is just being a human. If you are human, you will get sick or you will at some point have pain or suffering that can be treated/alleviated/lessened by the modern technology found in allopathic medicine. We as a society have eradicated so many former killers from our midst simply by improving health care. Where pneumonia used to be a death sentence under any circumstance, an otherwise healthy person can easily survive it with proper care.

Yet that care does cost money. People demand to be compensated for their time, skill, and resources...as they should. But on whose shoulders does the responsibility for that compensation fall? On the patient simply because they are human? No other modern product or innovation affects us as deeply and profoundly as modern medicine. No other product or innovation is as closely tied to our survival and success as individuals and as a society. Because of this unique aspect, it should not be considered as just another commodity to be traded but rather as a right for every person just as it is our right to breathe and bleed. It is our right to expect that other humans would not withhold from us the very remedy that can mean life or death, pain or suffering. Because sharing that remedy is at the core of what it means to be human just as much as our breath and blood are.

I can't help but think of the Good Samaritan. I heard it mentioned on a video the other day that the Samaritan paid everything for the stranger out of his own pocket. Whether you believe the story to be history or parable or simply a good work of fiction, it demonstrates the power of compassion. If you came upon a sufferring human being, would you cross the street? Would you ask to see their credit report? Or would you help them or find someone who could?

This is why I care about the health care debate. This is why I am appalled that it is even a debate. This is why I am saddened to hear so many of my fellow countrymen and women decrying an effort to get us one step closer to this right...to compassion. It is not a subject we can or should detach ourselves from and analyze subjectively because at the heart of the discussion is our very humanity. Because the question really is: To care or not to care?