A Quiet Sunday: Contemplating Temporary Fixes in Our Fast Paced World

Maybe I'm just old fashioned or it could be that I'm just plain old, but I find it increasingly frustrating to live in a world that seems to focus more and more on what's easy and fast rather than effective.

I have to wonder whether that's just an outgrowth of our growing something-for-nothing culture. People don't have time to appreciate and enjoy What Is because they are too busy running towards the next thing they need to do, get, conquer, or whatever.

Red cactus flower, near Joshua Tree, CA

Our neighbor's yard man was visiting today... he only comes about once a month during the winter, but I always keep my eye on him.

In years past, one of his jobs was to mow the grass apron along the fairly long "T-bone" driveway from the street into our back neighbor's house which is a bit like an "island" in the center of the block, connected to the street by this long driveway.

Anyway, the reason I now "keep my eye on him" is that at some point 3-4 years ago he took it upon himself to determine that it was just too much work to mow, so instead sprayed a very powerful and toxic herbicide on the sides of the driveway.

Prickly Pear cactus

I'm certain it lightened his work load... because within a few months the driveway was free of weeds (just gravel) and the 6-fot wide aprons at the side were pretty much bare brown earth. Of course, the problem is that when it rained the poison was carried by the water and seeped down the hillside, where some of it unfortunately drifted into into a corner of our yard where we once grew vegetables and berries, but worse, three lovely lilac bushes died.

Meanwhile, the sides of the driveway remained an ugly deserted Brown for several years.

I have actually told this story before, and it's not my point to repeat myself. The yard man's "solution" is simply a representation of a greater trend in the world I fell myself growing frustrated with.

Cactus spines in extreme close-up

We seem increasingly predisposed to work on temporary treatments rather than actual meaningful solutions. The yardman may have gotten out of having to mow for three years, but weeds will grow back.

The cynic in me is contemplating that maybe these "quick and dirty fixes" are the result of the fact that you can't really profit from lasting solutions, you can only profit from "treatments" that have to be repeated, and pretty much everything we do these days seems to be about making a profit.

Of course the medical field is particularly guilty of this, with the primary offender being the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Here's an entire for-profit field that pretends to be focused on healing people, while in effect UNtreating them by offering "solutions" that require patients to fork over $100's or even $1,000s on pharmaceutical treatments for the rest of their lives. Are their conditions healed? Nope. They are merely pushed into the background at a manageable level.

"Red Hot Pokers"

Let's face it, if I go to the doctor with the problem of recurring headaches, and the doctor offers me a remedy so I never have to come back again, then I'm no longer a profit center.

How the hell does that help us build a better and healthier world? Or maybe the hidden truth is that those who pull the strings in "high places" don't really want a better and healthier world.

Don't misunderstand, there are some very good and lifesaving drugs out there that improve the lives of many people with chronic conditions. But there are also a lot designed merely to mask symptoms, rather than facilitate healing. There are also some very good doctors who truly want for their patients to heal, permanently.

Pay me no mind I'm just a little bit grumpy today!

Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead! Tomorrow it will be the month of MARCH!

How about YOU? Do you think we tend to go for "quick fixes" rather than lasting solutions? Do you feel that the medical field sometimes worries more about TREATMENT than HEALING? Give me a shout back... Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210228 20:25 PST
x115