Healing in Wartime

David Spero, BSN, RN

In his book, Spontaneous Healing, Dr. Andrew Weil describes his trek through the Amazon in search of a legendary native healer. After months of searching, Weil was thrilled to finally find this man, living in a tree house in the jungle. But he had given up healing. The oil companies were drilling in the forests, and the pollution was killing people and animals. He had discovered that stopping the oil wells was more important to his people’s health than anything he could do with his herbs and spells.

I see the healer’s point. By trade, I’m a teacher, and in spirit, I’m a healer. I don’t do well with conflict. I prefer helping people feel better and more alive and closer to their higher selves. But sometimes, even healers have to fight. I think this is one of those times.

Pulling our country back from fascism would be a greater service to people’s mental and physical health than anything we can do with our various healing arts. Democracy has been stolen, at least at the Federal level. Endless war, growing poverty, suppression of women and gays and non-Christian religions and non-European people – these are the leading health threats in America and the world today. We need to address them first and foremost. It’s no accident that the rates of diabetes, heart disease, drug addiction, and abortion have all gone up in the last four years. That’s what happens when times are hard and injustice is growing.

I’m not telling people to give up healing. I’m not saying to do full time political work or pick up a gun. Ideally, we can find ways to put our healing efforts to help people get past their fears and move toward peace and wholeness. But I’m not sure how well that path will fit in with the other things we need to do to protect our people and our planet.

I think the balance of political engagement and healing work might be different for each of us, but for all of us, it will be hard to find and maintain. I hope we can help each other find ways that work for us in this difficult time.

David Spero, BSN, RN is a 51-year-old nurse, journalist and health educator living in San Francisco. He is a health coach, working successfully with chronically ill people to find quality of life where quality has been denied, and discover health when life has been defined by illness. In addition to his book The Art of Getting Well: 5 steps to maximizing health when you have a chronic condition, he teaches classes and is a health coach. David is also a practitioner of Acupressure and Interactive Guided Imagery sm. He teaches health classes, gives entertaining, inspirational talks to community groups on wellness, and leads seminars for patients and health professionals. He can be reached d-mail at David@DavidSperoRN.com