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Guest Editorial by Marc Baer – Holidays (continued)
From the archives • Winter 07/08 mag
From the Archives
I am honoured to be asked to write this guest editorial. You have an excellent journal in the UK, thanks to Malene and everybody else involved in it. As a matter of fact, I am glad not to have delivered an editorial earlier on as I was supposed to do. I would have missed the wonderful one by Chris. When I read this hot story about the monkeys, I thought I’d just continue down this path.
I am sure these animals are missing several things, such as a McDonalds (where to eat after the tourists have gone), and in the morning they must feel terribly awful for not drinking Starbucks coffee from cardboard cups. In some parts of the world, people seem to serve as an example for monkeys. This sad story of the true heroes from Gibraltar reflects the life of us humans touring the rock. Monkeys learn quickly, so maybe there is hope after all if we learn to enjoy food ourselves.
The medicines of the conventional drug companies fit this instant thinking. They are made, not to cater for the sick but to cater the idea of instant health.
In very few parts of the world, food is not only present to fill the stomach. Food is there to be enjoyed, eating food is a social event. Guests come and participate in preparing the meal. Everybody sits together, looks at the wonderful raw material, helps chopping onions, drinks a little bit of red wine and discusses matters from politics to medicine. It is called ‘Slow Food’ and in some parts of the world the tourism food industry is named with that term (e.g. Tuscany). This kind of eating is nowadays a luxury and is considered elitist, even if money is not a prohibitive factor. The limiting factor is time and to have time is considered the real luxury. But does this really hold true? How long do we sit and watch TV, how long do we commute? I believe we would all have enough time to devote to quality eating, to ‘Slow Food’.
But what is the reason for writing about food apart from a private obsession with it?
I believe in medicine we have a similar situation. As anywhere else we are centrally time driven. We all depend on our mobile phones, we all want to read our emails on a daily basis, we all get nervous when there is a traffic jam, and we all look at being late as a close to criminal offence. This reflects itself in a desire to get healthy instantly. Instant health fits the concept of instant coffee or instant soup. The medicines of the conventional drug companies fit this instant thinking.
...homeopathy is the medical caterer for the new luxury and life style; Homeopathy is ‘Slow Medicine’. Let us be proud of it!
They are made, not to cater for the sick but to cater the idea of instant health.
If on the other hand we look at health and disease as a process and not just a snapshot the concept of instant health must be wrong. Reflecting back to food we see, that the notion of ‘slow’ will be the new elitist and luxury brand. What else do we do with homeopathy? We navigate health to arrive at a safe shore. We do of course master very dangerous and acute situations with homeopathy quickly, and we do relieve severe pain instantly as well. But for the rest we give the organism time to recover, time to adjust to health. We don’t palliate symptoms with an instant powder but we cure.
If we consider this in a broader context homeopathy is the medical caterer for the new luxury and life style; Homeopathy is ‘Slow Medicine’. Let us be proud of it!
© Marc Baer, DVM
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