FAITH: Voices, speaking and listening

I enjoy writing. While I do not enjoy deadlines, they are a productive part of being a writer. I also enjoy reading. My problem with the joy of reading is that reading takes time. Good books are coming off the press at an amazingly fast pace. The trap is simple. I cannot be a writer without being a reader. I read magazines and it seems they all review books. New books grab my attention and I must buy yet another. And the readers with whom I engage send me even more good titles. Sometimes they even send me the book.

Books stretch my mind. I welcome every new book that comes my way. My birthday brought me even more. One title is “The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine.” It is not a quick read. It is a book to read and ponder. The book is a report on the work that is being done by a group of scholars at Columbia University in New York City. Collectively they are pursuing the subject of the practice of medicine in the United States. From their perspective the health care delivery system is broken. It is broken beyond repair. Their proposals are not an attempt to fix the system that we have but to replace what we have. They believe their proposals are doable, practical, affordable and capable of providing high quality health care for all. Their collective thinking is being translated into real situations with significant success.

Their starting point is two persons, a teller and a listener. They are the germ for the care of the sick. This dyad is the human capacity to recognize, hail, and value one another. Reciprocity is always present. The dynamic is ruled by a dictum: “deliver us from certainty.”

The group is questioning the long-term viability and quality of the individualism and the profit motive that now dominate and is killing quality, affordable health care available to all.

As I have begun reading my new book, I have been drawn back to another recent book that is written by a practicing physician and that has been on the New York Times best seller list for months. The book was written by Atul Gawande. The Title is “Being Mortal.” The book in general is about health care for people as they grow older. In contrast to “The Principles and Practice….” It is a quick and engaging read. It is a project in storytelling. The message is simple and clear. Community is an essential part of maximizing good health and life enjoyment in older years. A senior in community is happier and his/her health care costs are cut in half.

The message in both these books is quite similar. Our best health care will come from communities in which people talk with one another and listen to one another.

Dr. Philip Bess teaches architecture at the University of Notre Dame. He has written voluminously and lectures widely in academic circles. His favorite subject is the building of communities. Without community, life is sterile. Bess’s passion is the practice of architecture as a tool of community building for the common good. He maintains that cities are to be built to enhance the good life for large numbers of people. Cities and the good life have been a live discussion for centuries, dating back at least to Aristotle. This high goal of building community has been battered in America following World War II with the building of freeways and white flight into the suburbs.

Bess’s latest project is a one hundred year projection of the City of Chicago. Chicago was once a jewel of neighborhoods that resulted in communities. Some parts of Chicago are still models of community. These neighborhoods are good places to live safely with comfort. They are good places to rear families. Other parts of Chicago are the context of strife and violence. I am eagerly awaiting his final projected product that will produce the good life for all. I strongly suspect that Bess’s proposals for the building of communities are the vital context needed for the success of the Columbia University project and Gawande’s vision. There is no good life without community.

My readers know that I identify myself as a born-again Evangelical Christian. Following WW II a religious revolution took place in America. The leading figure was Billy Graham. He and his colleagues hijacked the word Evangelical. They took a respected word and gave it a new meaning. I hold dear an older meaning. The centerpiece of the new meaning of Evangelical became “individual salvation.” This idea has led millions of people to believe that they can experience salvation (wholeness) without community. The new meaning flies in the face of traditional Christian teaching. It has allowed generations of Christians to ignore the challenge of being “my brothers’ keeper.”

This column is about health care for all that is high quality, affordable and readily available. I read of the Columbia University efforts with hope. Gawande’s vision is exciting. I read of Philip Bess’s case for community. There are other missing pieces to the puzzle. Repentant Christians would be hugely helpful. We are our brothers’ keepers.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.