It continues to be a trying time, with changes to the healthcare system slowly unfolding. This has made me reflect on the intersection of healthcare and creativity. I was thinking about the deeply meaningful time spent with my dad in the hospital and hospice creating and sharing art. This was possible because of the adequate facilities and the superior help of the medical professionals—mostly nurses—who took care of my dad’s physical needs, as well as his and everyone’s emotional and spiritual needs while we were there. Losing my dad is the worst thing that ever happened to me, but that time we spent together in the healthcare system wasn’t always because of the people who worked there. When my dad wanted to try out a new technique of making eyeSnowScape pieces the nurses even helped me figure out what items found in the hospice I could use to help him realize this idea, both because they had the two minutes this took but also because taking care of his and my emotional needs was part of the specialized care they provide.
I often marvel at those people and the impossible weight of what they do as their job. Firing these people and providing less sensitive care to others is a wound to our collective humanity as far as I’m concerned. I feel sick when I think about other people not getting the basics they need when they’re dealing with the healthcare system.
I’ve been thinking too about my own health and my creative practice. Aside from the ongoing workplace repetitive strain injury (which is feeling pretty good right now—I’m getting lots of exercise and not pushing my limits with the art stuff) I have other health concerns that don’t bother me much because of the adequate healthcare I receive now. When I didn’t have an attentive doctor I felt gross and I never got anything extra done.
We all get sick and die. We will all suffer losses of loved ones unless we’re the very first person we know to die. I want to live in a society that doesn’t brutalize people in those situations unnecessarily but let’s them live to the fullest by providing good care, whether that means for their last five days or their next fifty years. I also want to live in a society that values the people who help the rest of us through those terrible or confusing or scary moments.
Imagine everything we can do when we take care of each other. All the things we can make and share and all the potential we can realize when we’re not just struggling to get by but supporting each other enough to thrive.
Oh well.