Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Welcome to America. Here's Your Band Aid.
Ah, the Band-Aid. The literal magic-bullet for so many cuts, scrapes, sores and rashes. And lately, also the figurative magic-bullet for so many hurts, pains, wounds and physical ailments.
Explanation begins with a brief history of the Band-Aid.
A Brief Treatise on the Band-Aid:
A 1921 invention by Earle Dickson to help his wife keep her fingers free from cuts when preparing food in the kitchen. Originally, it was a separate piece of gauze and tape that one had to assemble himself to achieve the final workable product. It was then covered with crinoline to help keep it sterile. Band-Aid sales were slow until Johnson & Johnson gave Boy Scout troops free Band-Aids as a publicity stunt. By 1924, Band-Aids were machine made, sold sterilized in 1939, and made with vinyl tape in 1958. And now, "Band-Aid" has worked its way into our vernacular replacing the proper term of "bandage" in the same way that "kleenex" or "xerox" is used interchangably with "tissue" and "photocopy" respectively. Barry Manilow was the one responsible for the jingle, "Stuck on Band-Aid" (click for info). And thanks to Google's handy advertising based on page-content, the banners on the right-hand side of this page most likely are showing at least one ad for bandages of some sort.
End treatise.
Even from the humble beginnings of the Band-Aid, its very nature implied that there was work to be done to create a workable, sterile bandage so that more work could then be done under the surface in allowing the wound to heal. The Band-Aid serves as a barrier to keep work being done externally (i.e. food prep in kitchen) from interfering with the health of the being wearing it and conversely serves as a barrier such that work underneath the skin can go on uninterrupted for proper healing.
But now, we are so spoiled with the hundreds of types, shapes, materials, and anti-bacterial treatments already present on the bandage, that all it requires is a trip to the medicine cabinet, tear open the sterile package, slap that baby on and get back to fighting your cage match. Done and done. We don't even have to work for it anymore.
And even as good as a Band-Aid is for the purposes for which it should be used, your mother always (or should have) told you, "you need to take that Band-Aid off every once in a while to let your sore get some air." Because taking a Band-Aid off allows nature's "Band-Aid" to form properly and do the work for which it was divinely created. This is also known as a scab. And when we constantly pick scabs? Maybe more pain, bleeding, discomfort, infection, and greater length of time until healing take place. And when we constantly avoid dealing with our issues? Maybe more pain, bleeding, discomfort, infection, and greater length of time until healing take place.
The basic nature of a Band-Aid is such that one can simply put it on a cut or sore and "magically," within days, whatever sore found underneath should be healed.
In reality, we are to change our dressings often. In reality, we should apply a salve to that wound for proper healing. In reality, we are to remove the bandage from time to time until healing is complete such that air can get to the wound. In reality, we must ingest healthy nutrition such that the wound can also be healed from the inside out by strengthening the immune system to fight infection and providing the proper nutrients and building blocks for tissue regeneration. There is rarely just one solution. The holistic approach requires deep and multi-faceted examination to get to the cure.
Some superheroes will simply save you from your impending doom. Great for them. But thats not enough for Holistic Man. Thats only a Band-Aid. And that's NOT great for you.
Whats that? You're on the ledge? You just can't take it any more? You need someone to come save you? Your average ordinary every-day superhero will simply step in and save you with superhuman strength if you jump. He may even talk you down and let you go about your business. To what end? To simply end up in the same place again?
Not Holistic Man. His goal, is to help you find out what led you to the "ledge" in the first place so that that won't be an issue again. Because if one simply runs from her problems, and doesn't get to the root cause of said problems, they will never be dealt with and will plague her forever. That's no way to live abundantly.
A dentist doesn't simply put a filling over the top of a cavity. If he did, it would be a festering, oozing, painful sore at some point in the future. Even painful to the point of ruling your life. Thus leaving you thinking about how to cover the pain with something else (drugs, alcohol, etc.) or, just as bad if not worse, avoiding thinking about what God's purposes are for you to fulfill because the pain is so great. Leaving you distracted from your real purpose on this earth.
It could have, most often, been a relatively simply problem to deal with as compared to a root canal, crown, false tooth - or somesuch. All of which can cause pain, discomfort, expense (time and money), and any number of other problems and inconveniences. Who wants that? Instead, if caught in time, the cavity can be drilled, cleaned, polished, and filled and brought back to luster with the proper treatment.
What seeds of the past have been planted in your life and covered over with Band-Aid after Band-Aid? What has been covered over with pride, prejudice, judgment or false-witness? "Hey, I can't even move my shoulder due to all the Band-Aid covering it, but thats ok, I don't want to move it anyway and risk further damage." Generally, not moving that shoulder will cause healing to take much longer. Holistic Man knows from experience.
When we interfere with the natural process God has put in place (scab) to heal our wounds, we are attempting to wrest control back from him in showing that we don't have faith in his infinite wisdom in knitting our body's processes. When we subvert our natural healing processes by avoiding proper nutrition, exercise and proper living, things will go haywire. We then attempt to put any number of man-made (and ultimately fallible) fixes - aka Band-Aids - over the top of the problem.
Whether it be too many man-made pharmaceuticals that completely upset our systems through toxicity and other ailments that then require other drugs just to fix the side-effects of the previous drugs prescribed. Whether it be belittling others to make ourselves feel better due to poor self-esteem. Or you pick one? Those are Band-Aids that simply don't address the root cause of the problem.
I encourage you brothers and sisters to find that bitter seed and "X" it from your life and cast it into the sea of forgetfulness (aka the peace of God). And its much easier for God to do this when we step aside and allow him to be the penetrating salve to our wounds. It still takes work on our part, but therein lies the mantra to be followed: its impossible for God to direct your steps if you're standing still.
You may not know which way to head. You may not know what treatment will extricate this seed of bitterness, pain or low self-esteem from your life, but as long as God has your steps to guide (whether they be feeble, bold or otherwise), he can bring you through it and to it. It is at that point where your faithful effort and his supreme will collide when your life truly becomes amazing. A potter can't throw clay on his wheel to create a gorgeous piece of ceramic without at least a lump of clay to work with.
Your steps give him something to work with. If no steps, nothing happens. And the mule that wouldn't move to help plow the field due to stubbornness? He is passed over time and again for the job until he decides to begin working again. Don't be the mule that is passed over and over again to participate in and to complete God's purposes in this life. He'll let you stay right in that one spot until you're ready to step lively. And as short as your time is in this plane of existence, there's no time to waste.
Make some steps. Make some changes. There is not any portion of this planet earth that does not undergo change over time due to wind, fire or water. Its somewhat arrogant that at some point we decide that we have it all figured out and that we can be the one entity on planet Earth that doesn't change. Change is good. Change brings new life. Change your Band-Aid for a treatment that gets to the root cause or the wound underneath won't truly heal.
Holistic Man has many tools on his super tool-belt.
But don't ask for a Band-Aid. He'll simply point you to the nearest drugstore.
Have a strong day.
Explanation begins with a brief history of the Band-Aid.
A Brief Treatise on the Band-Aid:
A 1921 invention by Earle Dickson to help his wife keep her fingers free from cuts when preparing food in the kitchen. Originally, it was a separate piece of gauze and tape that one had to assemble himself to achieve the final workable product. It was then covered with crinoline to help keep it sterile. Band-Aid sales were slow until Johnson & Johnson gave Boy Scout troops free Band-Aids as a publicity stunt. By 1924, Band-Aids were machine made, sold sterilized in 1939, and made with vinyl tape in 1958. And now, "Band-Aid" has worked its way into our vernacular replacing the proper term of "bandage" in the same way that "kleenex" or "xerox" is used interchangably with "tissue" and "photocopy" respectively. Barry Manilow was the one responsible for the jingle, "Stuck on Band-Aid" (click for info). And thanks to Google's handy advertising based on page-content, the banners on the right-hand side of this page most likely are showing at least one ad for bandages of some sort.
End treatise.
Even from the humble beginnings of the Band-Aid, its very nature implied that there was work to be done to create a workable, sterile bandage so that more work could then be done under the surface in allowing the wound to heal. The Band-Aid serves as a barrier to keep work being done externally (i.e. food prep in kitchen) from interfering with the health of the being wearing it and conversely serves as a barrier such that work underneath the skin can go on uninterrupted for proper healing.
But now, we are so spoiled with the hundreds of types, shapes, materials, and anti-bacterial treatments already present on the bandage, that all it requires is a trip to the medicine cabinet, tear open the sterile package, slap that baby on and get back to fighting your cage match. Done and done. We don't even have to work for it anymore.
And even as good as a Band-Aid is for the purposes for which it should be used, your mother always (or should have) told you, "you need to take that Band-Aid off every once in a while to let your sore get some air." Because taking a Band-Aid off allows nature's "Band-Aid" to form properly and do the work for which it was divinely created. This is also known as a scab. And when we constantly pick scabs? Maybe more pain, bleeding, discomfort, infection, and greater length of time until healing take place. And when we constantly avoid dealing with our issues? Maybe more pain, bleeding, discomfort, infection, and greater length of time until healing take place.
The basic nature of a Band-Aid is such that one can simply put it on a cut or sore and "magically," within days, whatever sore found underneath should be healed.
In reality, we are to change our dressings often. In reality, we should apply a salve to that wound for proper healing. In reality, we are to remove the bandage from time to time until healing is complete such that air can get to the wound. In reality, we must ingest healthy nutrition such that the wound can also be healed from the inside out by strengthening the immune system to fight infection and providing the proper nutrients and building blocks for tissue regeneration. There is rarely just one solution. The holistic approach requires deep and multi-faceted examination to get to the cure.
Some superheroes will simply save you from your impending doom. Great for them. But thats not enough for Holistic Man. Thats only a Band-Aid. And that's NOT great for you.
Whats that? You're on the ledge? You just can't take it any more? You need someone to come save you? Your average ordinary every-day superhero will simply step in and save you with superhuman strength if you jump. He may even talk you down and let you go about your business. To what end? To simply end up in the same place again?
Not Holistic Man. His goal, is to help you find out what led you to the "ledge" in the first place so that that won't be an issue again. Because if one simply runs from her problems, and doesn't get to the root cause of said problems, they will never be dealt with and will plague her forever. That's no way to live abundantly.
A dentist doesn't simply put a filling over the top of a cavity. If he did, it would be a festering, oozing, painful sore at some point in the future. Even painful to the point of ruling your life. Thus leaving you thinking about how to cover the pain with something else (drugs, alcohol, etc.) or, just as bad if not worse, avoiding thinking about what God's purposes are for you to fulfill because the pain is so great. Leaving you distracted from your real purpose on this earth.
It could have, most often, been a relatively simply problem to deal with as compared to a root canal, crown, false tooth - or somesuch. All of which can cause pain, discomfort, expense (time and money), and any number of other problems and inconveniences. Who wants that? Instead, if caught in time, the cavity can be drilled, cleaned, polished, and filled and brought back to luster with the proper treatment.
What seeds of the past have been planted in your life and covered over with Band-Aid after Band-Aid? What has been covered over with pride, prejudice, judgment or false-witness? "Hey, I can't even move my shoulder due to all the Band-Aid covering it, but thats ok, I don't want to move it anyway and risk further damage." Generally, not moving that shoulder will cause healing to take much longer. Holistic Man knows from experience.
When we interfere with the natural process God has put in place (scab) to heal our wounds, we are attempting to wrest control back from him in showing that we don't have faith in his infinite wisdom in knitting our body's processes. When we subvert our natural healing processes by avoiding proper nutrition, exercise and proper living, things will go haywire. We then attempt to put any number of man-made (and ultimately fallible) fixes - aka Band-Aids - over the top of the problem.
Whether it be too many man-made pharmaceuticals that completely upset our systems through toxicity and other ailments that then require other drugs just to fix the side-effects of the previous drugs prescribed. Whether it be belittling others to make ourselves feel better due to poor self-esteem. Or you pick one? Those are Band-Aids that simply don't address the root cause of the problem.
I encourage you brothers and sisters to find that bitter seed and "X" it from your life and cast it into the sea of forgetfulness (aka the peace of God). And its much easier for God to do this when we step aside and allow him to be the penetrating salve to our wounds. It still takes work on our part, but therein lies the mantra to be followed: its impossible for God to direct your steps if you're standing still.
You may not know which way to head. You may not know what treatment will extricate this seed of bitterness, pain or low self-esteem from your life, but as long as God has your steps to guide (whether they be feeble, bold or otherwise), he can bring you through it and to it. It is at that point where your faithful effort and his supreme will collide when your life truly becomes amazing. A potter can't throw clay on his wheel to create a gorgeous piece of ceramic without at least a lump of clay to work with.
Your steps give him something to work with. If no steps, nothing happens. And the mule that wouldn't move to help plow the field due to stubbornness? He is passed over time and again for the job until he decides to begin working again. Don't be the mule that is passed over and over again to participate in and to complete God's purposes in this life. He'll let you stay right in that one spot until you're ready to step lively. And as short as your time is in this plane of existence, there's no time to waste.
Make some steps. Make some changes. There is not any portion of this planet earth that does not undergo change over time due to wind, fire or water. Its somewhat arrogant that at some point we decide that we have it all figured out and that we can be the one entity on planet Earth that doesn't change. Change is good. Change brings new life. Change your Band-Aid for a treatment that gets to the root cause or the wound underneath won't truly heal.
Holistic Man has many tools on his super tool-belt.
But don't ask for a Band-Aid. He'll simply point you to the nearest drugstore.
Have a strong day.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
The Downfall of America
- fast food
- buffets
- fried food
- apathy
- laziness
- lack of ambition
- political correctness
- the Segway
- illegal immigration
- obesity
- stress
- poor nutrition
- lack of personal responsibility
- "restless leg syndrome" and other fake diseases that prey on people's fears and convince them that they have a syndrome that they really don't have or that they could have avoided by taking better care of themselves
- living to excess
- the ACLU
- racial division constantly stirred and perpetrated by the likes of Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan
- low standards
- dumbing down
- pessimism
- more to come.....
