What do Al Gore, the California Fires, Starbuck’s, and the fast-food industry have in common? Well, Al Gore focuses on the global warming; Starbuck’s makes it efforts at offering a $.10 discount if you bring in your own cup; fast-food industry draws from trees and carbon-based plastics to make sure you can walk out with your burger; and the California Fires are burning from a drought that is result of a planet that has heated up without a thermostat control for decades. Coming from Detroit, the tale end of our trip, the weather was unseasonably uncomfortably like spring: trees were hardly turning color; temperatures were in the 70’s; little to no rain in six days. I was born in Detroit. This is a stunning change. Frank Ross, my dear friend and business advisor, predicts that in 10 years Michigan will be a living destination as it may be the only state with water. Literally. Imagine Michigan going through population growth for its water!!

I continue on the issue of sustainability because once climate change became an issue of world peace, it became relentless in occupying my world view and my view of the world. Whether Al Gore is a politician, is 100% accurate in how he puts forth information, is exciting or boring…these are all non-issues. He has continued to try to wake us up.

Interesting movie we saw coming home from Germany: about Evan, turning into Noah, predicting a flood, and was declared insane… Hmm. Sound familiar?

So what does this have to do with healing environments and the C.A.R.E. Channel and HHS? No less than everything. We deliver images..live images tranferred into digital media…of the most beautiful of nature. We provide this so that the confined patient is able to connect to the most basic of human needs, the natural and spiritual. What if all of nature was burned to a crisp? The streams and rivers and lakes become polluted and toxic because of draught? What if the stunning flowers could no longer bloom because it was either too much sunlight or no sunlight? What if the ducks and geese disappeared for lack of water?

I have never been an environmental zealot. However, this is no longer about extremes. This is about looking at the situation burning in front of us and taking stock of what to do.

Please let me know what you are doing so that we may do it. Our goals are about accountability for where we stand…and where we stand is in ICU.

Without a doubt, this word has come to mean something far from its roots. To make this easy, here it is right from www.dictionary.com:

sus·tain /səˈsteɪn/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[suh-steyn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object)
1. to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.
2. to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
3. to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.
4. to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.
5. to keep up or keep going, as an action or process: to sustain a conversation.
6. to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life.
7. to provide for (an institution or the like) by furnishing means or funds.
8. to support (a cause or the like) by aid or approval.
9. to uphold as valid, just, or correct, as a claim or the person making it: The judge sustained the lawyer’s objection.
10. to confirm or corroborate, as a statement: Further investigation sustained my suspicions.

What adds to my particular dilemma is that I have come to use the word regarding healing environments: to create and sustain a therapeutic space. Meaning, 30 minutes or one hour, or one day is not enough. This is about continuous…sustainability. However, the word is confusing. Well, maybe not.

Dallas and I recently attended a Sustainability Intensive sponsored by the Fielding Graduate University at the O.U.R. Ecovillage in British Columbia (www.ourecovillage.org). The whole weekend we talked about it, ate it, breathed it, soaked in the rain within in, and talked some more. Knowing that we were not going to suddenly pack up our high-tech, computerized home, rid ourselves of the many electronic technological advances that have allowed us to record our music where we sit, put away our HD television that brings us Sunrise Earth every day…it just was not going to happen. However, something else did happen.

I had not linked it all before. Consumerism = environmental decay because we take one substance born of the earth and transfom it (production defined by Marx)…and have done so in a way that throws it back to the earth, but hardly dust to dust. It is more like tree to paper cups. Or, oil to plastic blister packages. Or, …well, you name it.

So, what kind of definition could I use about sustainability when it comes to compassion, caring, skill, generosity, forgiveness? Is it possible to take it and not give it back? Could we run out of any of them? Well, we have transformed some into economic windfalls. Hmm. Compassion, according to latest television commercials, is offered through your local HMO. Caring is one every mission statement. Skill..a promise to deliver. Generosity…has not yet been found in an ad lately. And, forgiveness…well, short shelf life it seems.

However, all sarcasm aside, having lived for three days among people who are really putting their word into action, I believe and keep saying that the healing environment is, by definition, sustainable, if we sustain it. That, human interactions are consummated heart to heart in ways that are non-disposable.

I am no longer buying paper plates; I am using real cups at Starbucks; I am using my handtowels more than my paper towels; I have already switched our marketing to more online exchange than paper stuff through the mail. Most important, however, I am reassure that global warming and heart warming are related.

How is it for you?