Worldview

I am now considering…. What is it that I want to create? What do I want to communicate to others? Why? Why do I want to create and communicate with others? What is in it for me? What conscious desires do I have? Do I have unconscious desires that are seeking fulfillment? Now, I am considering….What do I want to not create, avoid from creating and communicating with others? What propels me forward moment to moment? Where does this energy come from? What is the motivating factor?  How is the system structured? What is my function in the system?  What role do I play?  What part of the system do I reside?  Is there a power source?  There must be.

Recently, the two presidential candidates were each interviewed separately by Rick Warren.  He is a Pastor of a Christian Church and wrote a best selling book called…”The Purpose Driven Life:  What on Earth am I here for?  I have his book and I started it but I never finished it.  It wasn’t very user friendly for me as I wanted to read it all the way through and instead the book is set up to be read one day at a time.  That sounds a bit familiar…”one day at a time.”  Anyways I watched his interviews with Obama and McCain and I thought that Pastor Warren did a stellar job.  It was the most informative thing done to date in the midst of creative and increasingly powerful media influence in the political and for that matter all arenas.

The purpose of this posting is not to comment on the Pastor’s work.  Instead it is to focus on something he said several times, consciously and purposefully.   I don’t remember the exact words but the essence of it was that his questions were designed with the intent of illuminating and challenging the candidates worldview.  He went further and made a distinction between religion and faith.  And attempted to equate faith to worldview.  Ostensibly seeking to make the point that whatever faith you have adopted even if it is being an atheist you have a worldview and in the end your worldview is your faith and vice versa.  I think most people who interviewed the Pastor before and after his political forum failed to follow up on where he was leading us here.  I, personally, have struggled all of my life with faith.  I have written about it in previous posts and will not go more into at this point other than to say Rick Warren’s attempt at leadership here has inspired me to write this post in an attempt to help him illuminate the path.

Most of the blogs in this site have to do with Diabetes.  Well, your and my experience with diabetes is experienced in the worldview we hold.  So, read on if you are interested in worldview.  Continue reading Worldview

The Affliction of Addiction and Diabetes

I have sometimes used the concept of addiction as a metaphor for Type 1 diabetes. Think about it for a minute. We, as type 1 diabetics, must inject insulin daily. If you are still taking shots then you might have to partake in a “fix” up to 8 or more times a day. If on the pump we are constantly “hooked” up to our drug of choice. But, Michael, we don’t crave insulin?? Try not taking it for a day or two and see if you begin to crave it. But, Michael, it is good for us unlike being addicted something like drugs or alcohol?? Yes, it may be good for us but we are addicted to it. We need it. And without it we will have symptoms of withdrawal. What I am asking you to do by contemplating being a an addict by being a type 1 diabetic is to hold a mental perspective that you perhaps may not have thought about. When thinking of our disease as an addiction there are a few pathways that may open up. Explore these. Think about the people around you. Are they acting like co-dependents or enablers? Are you treating them like co-dependents or enablers?  Do you hide your disease? What is it that caused the addiction in the first place? Do I own any responsibility for the onset of my situation? Is the goal to overcome my addiction? Check out the 12 steps of AA. The first step says…..”We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.” Does having diabetes imply we are powerless over something and that our lives have become unmanageable? What is the something that we are powerless over? For sure the goal is manage our disease. If we don’t our lives do become unmanageable. I don’t bring this thought exercise out to be provocative. No, my intention is to offer a momentary shift in the way in which you see your disease so you may obtain additional tools to combat it. I have had type 1 diabetes for 35 years now. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you are able to increase your level of acceptance you will increase your ability to respond to your disease on a moment to moment basis. Denial is one of the hurdles in the recovery of an addict. The opposite of denial is acceptance. Work on acceptance and the quality of your disease control will increase.