Dear Doctor:
I got a call several weeks ago from a college buddy of mine, inviting me to a planned 30 year reunion of our college rock band, to perform at the 2004 Homecoming along with other key acts in Johns Hopkins history. Ocean Rose would bloom again, and I diligently rehearsed my parts, relearning songs I hadn’t played or even heard for three decades.
The night of the gig came around quicker than I could have expected, and miraculously, we sounded pretty good. It was a marvelously self-indulgent burst of creativity, and was just great fun. The music was a blast, and being with these old friends after all these years was warm and wonderful.
I observed, though, that while they looked okay on the outside, give or take a touch of gray and a few extra pounds, most of them had the typical assortment of complaints you’d expect from a fifty-ish bunch – back pain, tendinitis, sciatica, common wear and tear conditions, as well as a smattering of organic complaints and anxiety to round out the set, all signs of neglected nerve systems under siege. None of them had any clue as to the role of chiropractic in improving their body function.
These are intelligent people, with essentially positive outlooks on life, baby boomers who grew up and matured at a time where new ideas, common sense and outside-the-nine-dots philosophies were embraced over dogma and prior thinking. They would be surely be open to learning about any theories of health, human potential and peak performance, if they were presented effectively. How did they all manage to avoid hearing about and incorporating chiropractic into their lifestyles?
The sad truth is that more people fall into this category than the enlightened minority who avail themselves of regular chiropractic services. We have to pick up the pace, and invest more energy in getting the word out! These are some of the prime candidates for making change at the community level, parents and grandparents of the next generations who need what we do so desperately. If we don’t accept the responsibility to educate the public, who will? Well, the pharmaceutical industry has a few ideas about this, and they have enough money to promote anything they want.
It’s more urgent than you think to reach as many people as you can as soon as you can. I’m not an alarmist, if you read this column than you know that, but I saw dozens of ideal patients who hadn’t taken even the first step in the direction of spine and nerve system health, and that not only bothers me, it scares me. Are we legends in our own minds? Or can we really manifest the power to convey this vital message to a public that is awaiting leadership in this key area?
I say we can get it done, both at the political level, by supporting important causes with our money, our time and our networks, and at the grass roots level, by passionately providing information at every opportunity, to move the number of informed health care consumers toward critical mass. It’s up to you to do your part, to define your own sphere of influence, and to decide to get your point across to them as clearly and as practically as possible. Big action is required to move a culture toward our position on wellness, and we don’t have the financial resources that some of our detractors do. But we do have natural law on our side, and by investing ourselves fully in this cause, we can help to shift the paradigm toward a way of thinking we can all live with – and live better, at that.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
PS The Chicago seminar rocked – you can catch the same show in LA in May or NJ in June. To register, please call 1-800-451-4514 or visit our website at themasterscircle.com.
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