Cost-Benefit Analysis

Lately I've been pondering the idea of cost-benefit in terms of medicine and research. We've been talking about healthcare and poverty and injustice in my medical anthropology class (love it!) and have been analyzing different systems of medicine. There is such this disparity in the United States between the rich and the poor, and many, many people somewhere in between with varying levels of income. Our medical system is great in that if you have some rare disease, or an extreme condition (trauma, preemie babies), then you are getting the best care no matter what the price (and the price is really steep). On the other hand, there are millions (MILLIONS) of people who do not have any type of healthcare, and the majority of them also live below the poverty line.
And I don't know what to think about this. I don't want to say, x person doesn't get treatment but y does, but that is what we are doing now in some ways, at a great expense to our medical system. We've also been talking about how power struggles and political decisions shape our culture and therefore our medicine, and I think these issues play a huge role in the way medicine is practiced and the quality of care that is available.

No matter how much education people get, if they can't actually apply the knowledge because of their circumstances, how much help is it? How much is this going to cost us? I've never been a business person but I've been wondering if what we are doing is effective. Do I want to have to be a part of practicing this system, and what does my ideal look like? Is this possible on a large scale? With people of all kinds of beliefs, including mine in God?

I've also wondered for a long time if the money that went into research and some really expensive innovative treatments could be better spent elsewhere, maybe in prevention and policy reform, and could thereby eliminate the need for the treatment? Personally, that's why I want to be more involved in the providing of medicine and not the development of medicine. I also don't want to get to that place where I feel like I'm overwhelmed by need, because every little thing makes a difference. We don't live in an (my) ideal world, and sometimes I don't know how to grapple with that either. I don't want it to sound like I'm ranting, because I'm not, I've just been processing these things that I really do care about. These are bigger issues than I've never thought about before, and they are challenging me and inspiring me to dig into issues and think deep things and post about it on here!

Soul Junk

Do you ever feel like you have accumulated junk in your soul? Not literally of course, but things we like to call baggage, or stresses, or whatever is weighing you down? I feel that way occasionally, and the only way for me to fix it to clean my spaces. Usually, I feel this way after the semester has been pretty rough, and I haven't stopped to put away laundry, clean the piles off my desk, empty the trashcan, clean out my wallet, ... you get the point.

Something I've been thinking about lately is that physical stuff actually hinders my mental space. A pile of school papers too high on my desk makes that space unwelcoming and therefore unused, making for a less productive me. Too much stuff in my backpack or purse literally makes me carry around unnecessary things. A large pile of laundry seems so much more intimidating than a medium-sized pile. I also feel like when stuff is put in its proper home, it is enough for me to know where it is, not just to see it.

Mentally, a ton of stuff on my to do list clutters my head, but I do know that as long as I write them down I will not forget about them and can stop constantly thinking about them. {Side note: this is why I have paper/my iPod next to bed so I can list these things that pop up as I try to sleep. This also might be why when I get bored in class, I will make lists. I love lists.} Too many tasks going on at once gets nothing done quickly or efficiently. This is the hardest one to remember - I am multitasking even as I write this and wishing I could also be working on like 4 other things. I am torn between just switching tasks and completing the other one so I can feel less distracted by it, and finishing the task at hand. Still a toss up, but currently this one is winning!

Spiritually, there is a lot of stuff that I would like to read/write/say that sometimes it gets cluttered in my head. Making lists of what I want to do helps too - I currently have like 30 topics I would like to post about. Ironically, I keep posting about current things. Hopefully one day I will get to that backlog. And I have like 10 books to read.

So, is your physical space a reflection of your soul space? And/or vice versa? Some people think your desk affects how you are viewed at your job: Your Desk Job. Last week it was empirically discovered by these people that physical clutter negatively affects your focus. Hmm. As a quasi-messy person, {read: It may look like a mess but I to me it makes sense and I could find it quickly!} I have been pondering this because I do think my space reflects my mind/soul and then this space affects my mind/soul. And the right kind of reminders are necessary - things I need to take somewhere, work to do. But maybe their place isn't at my workspace, but its own space, where it's not occupying so much of my mind.

So I'm working on keeping my soul and my spaces free and uncluttered, even if it means not doing other things, because it makes for a happier, more focused self. And I am free to think about interesting things instead. Like why I'm cleaning. Or on Him who cleanses me. :)