If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.
- Chuck Pagano
I feel that in this world of racing like a rat that people have forgotten how true this quote is and how it impacts a person’s life and can sadly transform a person’s life from them that have to them that don’t have.
As we scale up in globalization, are we downsizing on empathy and the policies and programs that support it?
If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything?
It is easier to disappear than to reappear.
A Patient Voice 
If I didn’t need the money and the health benefits I would quit my soul stripping back breaking mind numbing job now and spend more time with my developmentally disabled brother Stephen.
Sadly NYC is a very expensive place to live and I must work at my stressful workplace until retirement.
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I sent off accidentally before I finished. Empathy has scaled down as companies globalised or for that matter even local companies in my lil red dot has become “heartless”
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Well written Harlon and rings true
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Like the old saying, Harlon: ‘It’s in the eye of the beholder’…
Whilst ill, for a couple of years during 2013, 14 and 15 I was bed ridden for most of that time. I couldn’t walk, talk, look after my own toileting and such for about 8 months, or so I’m told. To me, much of it was a blur! For the remaining time I felt incredibly alone and forlorn. Never had I experienced such devastation to my body/mind. I fought hard to accept the limitations; though, had days where I felt how much easier it would be not to fight and allow sleep to consume me. It was tough. I’ve had a number of illnesses throughout life; they’re never easy. There are bad days; there are better days; then, for me, there are fantastic great to be alive days. I’ve come to appreciate life in all its ups and downs. Illness has made me incredibly strong and resilient. I wish there were better ways to achieve this! But, it is what it is! Compensations come, and life offers sweetness here and there. Presently, for me, life is sweet. I am well, and appreciate the love of my closest ones. However, I also appreciate that life is unpredictable; yet know that I am a survivor, and will always have the strength to go forward, no matter how tough it gets.
So, although I appreciate what Chuck Pagano has said; I also believe in me, and my ability to deal with whatever life has in store.
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I agree, yes, there is so much more, but as someone whose health has always been something that “limits” me – I think it’s important to get that voice out, in moderation. i know for me, sometimes being alive feels like torture. I think your comment was great – and this is what I love, the discussion of perspectives, because we each have our own and they are, hopefully, and ulltimately “mutable”. Hugs, Harlon
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I’m not one for either/or thinking Harlon, so I disagree with Chuck on this one.
Health is so important, yet we can be grateful for so much more. As long as we are still alive 💛
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I totally agree with you both Val and Carolyn. In hindsight, this post didn’t really get out the message I had intended. I think there is some meaning to the quote but it is very much open to interpretation – what exactly do we mean when we say “health”?
My intention when I posted this was to to an advocacy piece that is more directed to an issue that I think is important – a guaranteed annual income. I’ve been sick much of my life and working full-time isn’t a realistic option for me – although I plan on staying in denial about that – and simply finding a job when you have a resume with lots of gaps and volunteer work associated with stigma-laden diseases, so I am pretty much, in this economy, and in my state of health unemployable. As a result, I rely on the government’s disability program and what I am expected to live on is mathematically impossible, not to mention dehumanizing. I am fortunate, yes fortunate in so many ways, that I have a home that I can go to, but after I spend the expenses that it takes to live, there’s nothing left. So that’s the nothing my quote was directed at. I don’t need fancy shoes, but I’d like to have more resources to invest in managing my health in a holistic way and I love travelling and that’s just not in my budget. Poverty can lead to poor health outcomes and it reduces choice.
In a world where the gap between the haves and the have nots has become so extreme, it’s disheartening that resources keep flowing upwards rather than downwards. Our healthcare system and our Social Services system is fractured. And there are lots of ways to be happy without money but at a point, doing without can leave one feeling a lack of dignity.
A bit of a ramble, but this is what the posting should have been but didn’t come out quite as meaningful as I had intended.
Thanks to you both for sharing your perspectives and reminding me what is really important about one’s health – and that is finding joy in living and surviving.
Love,
Harlon
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Thank you Harlon for sharing from your heart. I had no idea of the impact that your health has had. Sending you warm wishes for a better tomorrow and a ((hug)). 💛
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