A Life Well-Lived

Life is most often a mystery consisting of “ambiguities without clear answers where the task is to determine which critical factors might interact in some unknown way in an uncertain future” (Gregory Treverton, Smithsonian Magazine, June 2007, pp 98-102). Health care should be the utilization of this mind-set to frame the mysteries of health and prevent health problems to achieve and maintain optimum health status. Health care is not dispensed; it is a participatory process and a group activity. If there are health care providers, they are family members, neighbors, church members, co-workers, educators, guides, coaches, and fellow citizens. Medical care is not health care. Public health comes close to health care but it needs to be much broader and involved with every aspect of life. The goal of health care is a life well-lived; optimum health status is integrated into the process.