Day 14: The Spin-Doctoring of Need & The Power of Story

Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson was known for claiming, “The first wealth is health.”

Today I’m sure deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine Jessica Lustig agrees with him. In her article “What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick with Coronavirus,” she describes taking care of her beloved spouse as he is ravaged by COVID--19.

At one point she remarks to her teenage daughter, “Now we live in a dystopian story.” Her daughter replies “Yeah.” Then adds, “Lots of people already did.”

Across the globe, “India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, ordered a ‘total ban’ on leaving home for the population of 1.3 billion, for the next three weeks. He warned, ‘If you can’t handle these 21 days, this country will go back 21 years.’”

The New York Times Editorial Board, writing in “Coronavirus Is Advancing. All Americans Need to Shelter in Place,” says, “This crisis has not turned a corner — it hasn’t even hit yet. Winning this war will require shared sacrifice, and tremendous short-term hardship for Americans.”

Dystopia
Total ban
Crisis

Each of these words carries an implicit story.

Here are some more:

Coherent national strategy
Unified national response
We need a plan

Also, implicit story in each phrase.

Health is ordinarily a private matter. We know this because of the stringent governances there are around sharing personal health information, commonly known as HIPAA regulations.

But health, and how we maintain it, has moved arenas in the blink of an eye.

Health is now a public matter. In fact, there is an aspect of healthcare called Public Health that has been the poor cousin of healthcare for many a long decade. It’s the public health, and its ethical guarantee as a human right, that prompted President Barack Obama to initiate and persevere with the Affordable Care Act.

Actually, let’s parse that a little more finely. The A.C.A. is not really about healthcare, it’s about health insurance. Healthcare is a different matter altogether.

The A.C.A., in my opinion, took a broad ethical brush and claimed, theoretically, that healthcare was a universal right. When it comes down to dollars and cents, though, a whole bunch of citizens can’t afford to buy health insurance. So just how universal is that, really?

Thomas Friedman interviewed ethics professor Michael Sandel in this morning’s Times. He says, “Think about the two emblematic slogans of the pandemic: ‘social distancing’ and ‘we’re all in this together.’ In ordinary times, these slogans point to competing ethical principles.” He’s right.

Later he boils the two down to two words: individualism and solidarity. He also laments that Americans don’t do solidarity very well. I have to add, unless we’re in protest, and then, for abbreviated periods of time, we can stick together.

I was sad to see that this morning’s news had begun to point the finger, or fingers plural really, of blame. If so-and-so had done this-and-such at xyq time, then ....” So easy. So wasteful. Okay, maybe that’s true. Maybe. Or maybe it’s just what we tell ourselves when we feel helpless.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has emerged as a voice of studied reason for New Yorkers, for which I am grateful. Here’s what he said about blame, “Mr. Cuomo acknowledged that he is on a steep learning curve in dealing with the pandemic, and that mistakes might be made; on the day Mr. Cuomo ordered the closure of nonessential businesses, he said, ‘I accept full responsibility. If someone is unhappy, somebody wants to blame someone, people complain about someone, blame me.’” There are other leaders who have refused to take any responsibility.

And here is where the rubber meets the road.

What is the common good, as ethicist Sandel cites it, and what is my part in contributing to it?

Mr. Sandel says, “The common good is about how we live together in community. It’s about the ethical ideals we strive for together, the benefits and burdens we share, the sacrifices we make for one another. It’s about the lessons we learn from one another about how to live a good and decent life.”

Spiritually, it’s about a principle I’ve cited before, and likely will cite over and over again, before this crisis ends. If I do not want for you what I want for myself, I am in grave spiritual error.

One of the basic pieces of the common good up for debate is: what constitutes essential?

We are, after all, told that nonessential businesses must close. And here is where the spin-doctoring flourishes.

I’ve heard of a video rental store that deemed their product “essential entertainment” for the lockdown. The employees rebelled, and the story changed, and the store closed. You know as well as I do that there are myriad additional examples.

Essential takes us to the net-net of life: what do we really need?

And, I would add, are Americans going to step enough out of our collective juvenility to live with what we need versus what we want?

I want hazelnut cream in my Earl Grey tea every morning. Do I need it? No.
I want to be able to go when I want wherever I want. Do I need that? No.
I want to reach out and hug someone when I feel like it. Do I need that? No, not really.

Remember? Shared sacrifice. Short-term hardship.

Really? Because letting go hazelnut cream, going wherever I want, and hugging people isn’t sacrifice of need. It’s sacrifice of what I want.

Is that a short-term hardship? No, not really, but okay, if you insist. Fine, like Governor Cuomo, I’ll own it.

One of the opportunities in this crisis is to look deeply at the stories our words tell us, Beloved. Do your stories of need match the facts of need? Or do they match the feeling of what you want?

I have a friend with children who are Type-1 diabetics. They need insulin. I too take medication that I must have to maintain my first wealth, my health. Those are needs.

We are spending a lot more time alone these days. Would you consider spending some of it looking within at what you need, truly need?

Frank Bruni is one of my all-time favorite New York Times Opinion columnists. In his column this morning, “We’re Relying on Trump to Care About Our Lives,” he writes, “America is relying on him, of all presidents, to care as much about vital signs as about dollar signs.”

Let’s stretch his metaphor a little. Let’s say Needs are Vital Signs. Wants are Dollar Signs.

Jessica Lustig and her daughter need the Tylenol and Advil recommended to layer against their husband’s and father’s vital signs. Mx. Lustig keeps looking for them online. Fortunately, they have a network of people who are looking wherever they are, too, and the U.S. Postal Service is letting them send the much-needed medicines they need to help him through this.

Now have a look at your beautiful face in the mirror. If your first wealth is health, what do you need? Use your words to tell the truth story about that, won’t you?

Then make a list of everything you want when we get through this pandemic, and dream of having them. Make sure, though, that your first wealth is health.

Dr. Susan Corso is a metaphysician and medical intuitive with a private counseling practice for more than 35 years. She has written too many books to list here. Her website is www.susancorso.com