‘New Age’ vs ‘Old Age’

We spent the weekend at our booth at the Wellness Show. There’s so much going on, in such a huge venue, that the buzz in the air is palpable. That’s not just a buzz of excitement, either; it's also the sound of all those conversations booming back from the massive sail-like ceiling that makes the convention centre a Vancouver landmark. Beautiful, but acoustically unfortunate.

There were hundreds of booths at the Wellness show, each demonstrating its own brand of health-care, everything from organic pizza to Hare Krishna people, from reiki to amethyst biomats. On breaks, I walked through it, trying out a shiatsu here, a biomat there, and oh so much food, in the form of free samples. All tasty, all convenient, all with some claim to promoting health.

A lot of people were wandering around looking exhausted and confused. Easy to see why. It’s overwhelming. There are too many choices, all amazingly effective, when followed assiduously. Closing the eyes, we hear white noise. Too much.

Okay, okay, so this is just me, revealing my ‘inner old fogie’. But I can’t help wondering: whatever happened to plain old fruits and vegetables, homemade soup, walking (even without walking sticks), a good night’s sleep? Practical,common-sense diet, rest and exercise, TLC. Why does wellness need all those bells and whistles anyway?

Perhaps it’s a metaphor. I guess there really is no simple path. We all have to stumble around, trying various things, until we finally find what works for us. Time consuming, tedious work, all that trial and error. But it's better than the alternative. Better by far then the old way of "Trust me, I'm a doctor". Come to think of it, it’s a worthy quest, finding our own best health care, especially compared with giving authority in all health matters to the 'experts'. Thinking for ourselves is the best way.

I can’t help feeling, though, that some of the older, simpler approaches get overlooked in the buzz of newness. Chicken soup and naps. Herbal teas and chest rubs. The basics, tried and true. They work, they're cheap, they're available.

Right after the wellness show, I’ve come down with the flu. Go figure. Gotta go make me some chicken soup.

Take care of yourself!