On a family new years vacation this year I was reflecting on how to conclude this introduction to our journey to wellness. Just a few days earlier, on 26 December 2004, A vast tsunami had hit Southeast Asia and the news broadcasts were focused on the terrible tragedy. An event like this reminds us once again of our insignificance in the big picture, the overwhelming power of nature and the inability of any man made system to overcome its power. The number of people dead and missing was enormous, and there was little or nothing that money, power or research could do for these people.

The pictures of lives and families being destroyed and interviews with the survivors motivated people in all nations to support one of the largest humanitarian aid programs the world has ever seen, and yet it seems so insignificant compared with the person al loss for which no amount of material giving could compensate.

Yet tsunami-like events sweep across North America every year and we choose to ignore them. They take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and we cannot buy, give, or legislate anything that will stop the devastating tidal waves caused by alcohol, illegal drugs, smoking, diabetes, and obesity, among others. The solutions lies within each of us, and society must stop trying to be the saviour and recognize that its role is to support. Rescuing and saving only makes us more dependant victims. we must look to ourselves if we want to stop this death and destruction. The essential challenge is ours to undertake, not society’s.

Canadians are among the luckies people in the world to have a society that is committed to giving all people access to a basic level of health care. But this is only the beginning, and it is time to build on what Tommy Douglas and many others have given us. To continue our journey to wellness, individuals must accept responsibility for what and who we are, learn about our options, define what quality of life we want, make choices, and understand that all any of us can do is the best with that we have to work with.

Perhaps the greatest threat to our Canadian way of life is our obsession with illness care and our refusal to accept the limitations of what money can do to fulfill this obsession. Attempting to buy health by treating illness is beginning to have an overwhelming effect on all social programs. we must accept that if Canadians were to abandon all other social programs and invest every penny of tax revenue into the services we now cover in our universal illness-care system, everyone will eventually get sick and die.

The reality is that there is no universal solution to treating illness or supporting health, because both are ultimately determined by what individuals do for themselves, not what others do for them. We must accept this fact, define the limits of what our publicly-funded health safety net is expected to do to support the health of the people, and live within our means.

What makes this an even greater threat is that the decisions are being left in the hands of politicians, who have not gone through the process of developing a vision for health, and whose primary goal is to get elected. As a senior advisor to Ontario’s Minster of Health once told me, “the vision and leadership for health care reform can come only from the people.”

As a society we must start to inform, empower and support the people. Each of us is mortal. Most Canadians, die sooner because of what they will not do for themselves, rather than what others are not willing to do for them.

The challenge for society is not to create carriers so that all people are treated equally, but to support all people equality so they can all have the opportunity to pursue their highest potentials. There is nothing as a society we can do to make people pursue their highest potential.

The challenge for each of us is to become all we are capable of is personal, and the answer does not lie within a political party, a health provider, or new technology. the ticket for our journey to wellness is inside each one of us!