Personal and corporate systems
As individual human beings, we have a wonderfully complex and versatile life system, operating in at least four dimensions: body, emotions, mind, and spirit. Our amazing and beautifully individuated humanity then goes forth to interact with others.

The individual system interacts with the family system. Family systems interact with community systems. Community systems interact with regional systems, and so on.

Humans also interact with vocational systems, or employment systems. And just as humans can often be considered "dysfunctional" in certain areas, employment systems can be dysfunctional too. Dis-ease afflicts companies just as it does individuals. And in companies - just as in individuals - the state of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual health affects the health of the body(ies).

One of my favorite quotes about "vocations" is from Sir John Templeton:

“A job can sustain your interest while you make enough money to support yourself in comfortable lifestyle. But a career is more than that--it is a vocation. The word vocation comes from the Latin root to call. Therefore, your vocation is a calling and, in a very deep sense, finding your vocation is finding yourself."

Cultural systems
In considering personal and corporate systems, all of us look into a "cultural mirror" to see the larger societal reflections of our more localized experiences. The influence of the media, especially social media (though print and television still carry a large footprint), contiuously shapes the cultural conversation.

For most, the conversation is a "condensed" or "collapsed" one: we attempt to cram as much "content" as possible into the fewest possible words, and those words become the labels bandied about by the many.

It's as if - since we all understand the definition of the words - we think we are therefore in tacit agreement. Yet the meaning and content the individual assigns to the chosen words often varies dramatically. And we wonder why we can't seem to get to solutions we all can live with.

The co-morbidities of obesity
Back in the early 2000s, the health aspects and perils of obesity rose above mere whispers in the national dialogue. As everyone knew (and knows), tens of millions of Americans are either overweight or clinically obese. And around that same time, reports were released showing that obesity was overtaking smoking as the number one avoidable cause of death.

If obesity hastens death, and it's avoidable, and we all want to live, then why weren't we avoiding it - then - and even moreso, now? We would do well to seek and apply wisdom to understand truly the human components of this ongoing dilemma.

We know obesity is a co-morbid factor for a host of other dis-eases, notably heart disease and diabetes. And then there are the physical aches and pains, the difficulty breathing, and the emotional wounds encountered in our systems of both social and corporate interaction.

Dictionary.com offers these definitions for "morbid:"

• Of, relating to, or caused by disease; pathological or diseased.

• Psychologically unhealthy or unwholesome: “He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses” (Edgar Allan Poe).

• Characterized by preoccupation with unwholesome thoughts or feelings: read the account of the murder with a morbid interest.

• Gruesome; grisly.

One may note with some interest that only one of the four definitions addresses the physical aspect of "morbid;" the remaining three point toward the mental and emotional aspects of the term.

When we "collapse" meaning into a single word, we forfeit the distinctions among the more subtle elements of an issue. To say "obesity is a co-morbid factor for diabetes" means to most, "obesity causes diabetes." If obesity causes diabetes, then by all means let's "treat" obesity. And how do we treat dis-eases? Medically, of course! What kind of medical treatments? Surgery and pharmaceuticals. Both of which hit the health plan - and rather expensively.

Trick or treatment ©
Dr. Ronald Cole said, "Medicine gives us the mechanics to cure – physicians don't heal anybody. True healing comes from people themselves and I believe in educating people so they can heal themselves."

The body does the healing; physicians can assist, but first they must do no harm. When causes are fully identified, and fully responded to via all available means, the patient/human is truly being treated. With our current (allopathic) health care system, medical treatment of the body, isolated from the rest of the human condition, is not responding fully to the broader human need.

The body reacts and responds to thoughts and emotions, and when our thoughts and emotions are out of whack, our bodies get out of whack, too. We cannot "trick" the body because - quite obviously - the human system is not merely a physical one.

Holistic / Naturopathic / Integrative / Integral / Functional Medicine uncollapses the limited vantage point of traditional, or allopathic, medicine. It incorporates the holistic aspects of exercise, nutrition, stress management, spirituality, clear thinking, social interaction, vocational purpose, etc.

The last word
There are no tricks to true treatment. True treatment does not isolate the physical, it incorporates all the aspects of being Human; it is holistic. Ignoring this is too costly for the individual, our companies, and our country.

~ Mark Head
© 2025. All Rights Reserved.

Aspirations
"When you have found your calling, you can give love through your work. In fact, love is the key to successfully mastering your vocation. It directs you to those special talents you can give the world and shows you how to share them with others.”

~ Sir John Templeton

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