"...it's the only thing."
Saw that on the office of somebody's door last semester, someone who works in the field of health. And it really bugged me, but it's taken me a long time to put my finger on exactly how and why it's bugging me.
I got it.
It creates a polarity, divides people into two distinct groups of people, with no possibility for existence in between.
The healthy? Lucky. I suspect, too, that a lot of people who subscribe to this belief also think that the healthy are doing lots of things right. They don't smoke, they eat well, they exercise, they've banished their personal demons, all through strength of will.
The unhealthy, by contrast, are unlucky or badly behaved, or perhaps simply weak in discipline. They brought diseases upon themselves or simply chose poor genetic material.
(I'm using "unhealthy" very broadly here to mean anyone with a physical or mental impairment, whether caused by illness or accident or roll of the genetic dice, as well as anyone with a chronic or intermittent illness.)
Placing the unhealthy in the position of culpability has a number of problematic effects, one of which is the attitude that society doesn't need to provide health insurance, because people should take better care of themselves so they won't get sick and won't need to see the doctor.
Calling the unhealthy "unlucky" is also problematic. It suggests that those who are unhealthy can't be happy or productive. It suggests that those who are not completely able and disease-free should be pitied. Also, they should probably take better care of themselves and avoid activities that exacerbate the illness, even if they're activities that allow independence. And this becomes paternalistic.
So let's hang on to the first part of that sentence on the door: "Health isn't the most important thing." Because it's not.
It's entirely possibly to live a rich, full, varied life while "unhealthy."
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ReplyDeleteYou can be healthy and miserable.
You can be healthy and a foul person.
You can be healthy and destroy the environment.
If health's the only thing that matters, we're in big trouble.
Thanks for that, Julia.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks for this analysis. In this last year or two during which my family has been in financial crisis, I admit that I have often downplayed the stress by comparing to a health crisis.
ReplyDeleteAnd how would I downplay a health crisis? By remembering that no one gets out alive and the best way to make that bit of news tolerable is to practice tolerance.
Heide,
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
I agree that you can interpret this quote as paternalistic but think it was, instead, intended to imply that health is not merely physical but multi-dimensional, with people's quality of life determined by different dimensions (physical, mental, environmental, etc.), all of which are worthy of our attention and yet will never be "perfect." In short, the act of seeking optimal health is more important than our actual health status and is, therefore, an important thing.
That said, I dislike the quote for its all-or-nothing rhetoric, which is why I similarly dislike the old Lombardi line about winning from which this quote was derived. Striving to win (in football) and striving to improve one's overall health, regardless of what cards you've been dealt in either sports or life, are indeed both worthy goals. However, if this striving comes at the expense of others (e.g., cheating quarterbacks, condescending health nuts), something's clearly wrong. Competitions are worthy of our efforts regardless of the probability of victory, and life is worth living regardless of health status. Winning and health are great, but not the only things.
Really sorry to offend anyone - it was my door - Im a single mother and brought my daughter to work with me one day. My 10 year old wrote that and drew some other pictures and posters. I thought it was sweet and we put it on the front of my door. She wrote it because she was proud of her mom. Honestly- I will take it off my door.. it was not meant to offend or create polarity.
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