Sicko

I'm back on the east coast but without a computer (typing this after hours at work) since B. is down in DC on a business trip. A normal red eye flight is bad enough, but a red eye where you don't even get to sit with your fiancee, have to sit in a middle seat, and then have to drive to DC with your boss an hour after getting home is pretty much as bad as it gets. Luckily he returns on Friday night and doesn't have to give up his weekend. He has put a ban on seeing anyone or having any social functions that don't directly relate to golf. I told him that there was a lot of cleaning to do, so I was fine with that plan.

When we were out in Washington we all went to see Michael Moore's latest film Sicko. It was funny, horribly sad, shocking, touching, and interesting. Definitely my favorite of his films so far. In the past he has tended to be a little too inflammatory for my taste, despite the fact that he was shining light on issues that needed to be talked about. But in this movie he really does just let the facts and the interviews speak for themselves without unnecessary editorializing. I don't want to divulge too much of the movie here, but if you have the chance please, please go see it.

Two things from the movie that really affected me and made me think long afterwards:

1) People who work for our health insurance companies are given rewards - actually financial bonuses - when they can turn down enough claims to make the company a profit. This is opposed to doctors who work in England (and are paid for by the government) who are given bonuses when they can increase the number of their patients who are healthy - by encouraging preventative medicine, adequate health care, etc. The doctors are encouraged to do what they wanted to do all along, which is make people well. It was such a simple and shocking difference. Can you imagine a health care system where you go to the doctor immediately because you are never concerned about finances, and have faith that you will get all of the tests and treatments you need without having to fight for them?

2) In the part of the movie where he is comparing our health care system to that of other countries, he sits down with a group of Americans living in France to discuss the basic differences between lifestyles. Not just health insurance, but overall wellness. None of the information was new to me, but again, to be reminded of it was so intense when you're sitting in the theater comparing everything they speak about to life in America... the French eat less healthy, exercise less, and yet still live longer than we do, the average amount of vacation time is 7 weeks with an extra week the year you get married for your honeymoon, the doctors make house calls, all mothers are provided with a baby nurse for their newborns, etc, etc, etc.

Setting aside the entire issue of health care, it was such a piercing reminder of how hard we are on ourselves here... how much we work, how little vacation we take, how rarely we just celebrate the joy of life and family and wine and dancing. I feel like most of the time even when we are vacationing or celebrating, we're not doing it with full force. It's not full bodied celebration, just going through the motions. It was a lovely reminder to not take it all so seriously, celebrate with all that you've got, and just relish the beauty that surrounds us.