An ounce of prevention
Is worth a pound of cure
Unfortunately, stuff is sold
By the pound and dollar
Virtually everyone knows that prevention is preferable to cure. As Ben Franklin put it, “A stitch in time saves nine.” Much of prevention takes relatively little knowledge but a good dose of long-term thinking and patience/persistence. So why is prevention often poorly practiced? First, as this short poem says, “stuff is sold,” meaning that tangible goods and more-easily defined services are easier to sell than intangible goods and complex, difficult-to-define services. For example, in health-related fields, it is easier to sell a pill or distinct procedure than a whole lifestyle that offers healthy eating, regular physical activity, lower stress and adequate sleep. Such healthy lifestyles are not achievable with a small number of simple, easy-to-define products or services. Moreover, overall, the desire in Western civilization to monetize everything possible plays into our more base instincts that favor the concrete, the simple, and the immediate. This profoundly affects what we make and do in our careers. Those vocations which may advance human progress but are not easily monetized are at-risk for atrophying in modern, capitalistic culture. Human creativity is relegated to a too-narrow focus to come up with solutions adequate for our problems. We end up focusing on solutions that create as many or more problems. If Western civilization where a pharmaceutical cure being advertised, the list of side-effects would literally take us to our death beds! If we cannot together create a culture where the organizing principle is more than buying and selling, then our lives will continue to be bought and sold to the highest bidder, down to the last pound of flesh. May we live our lives in such a way that we treasure and guard our ounces of prevention as it reigns pounds of easy cures and silver bullets; and may the fruit of our labor enrich us all.
