Bamboo is a remarkable plant. It’s strong, yet light, firm, but seemingly delicate. It’s a remarkable coloniser, spreading rapidly and many people fear it in their gardens because of its ability to grow and spread virtually uncontrollably.
I think it’s a great example of nature at its best….strong, resilient and adaptable.
We need those qualities too, and I’m still surprised that Medicine pays such little attention to the natural mechanisms of defence, repair, healing and growth.
From anti-inflammatoires to anti-biotics, anti-histamines to anti-depressants, modern Medicine seems based on the war concept of fighting enemies in an attempt to overcome them. During the pandemic we saw repeated attempts to find a magic bullet – lockdowns, masks, vaccines – nothing stemmed the tides of infection, nothing inhibited the proliferation of variants and a whole succession of waves.
At various stages in this pandemic I’ve thought – the virus isn’t the problem, it’s how we are living – because we’ve seen that those hit hardest are those who are most vulnerable – those living in poverty, those living in overcrowded housing, those already suffering from other incurable chronic ailments, the frail elderly, those living in care facilities or working in poor work conditions with inadequate ventilation, space, etc.
But are we addressing those issues? Because the magic bullet never came, and, probably it never will.
We know a lot about what we have to do to promote and sustain health and adaptation. We just need to turn that into political will and tap our human creativity to follow through.
Will we do that?
Heroes Not Zombies 
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