Once upon a time a world was created and we all believed it was true. Maybe we fell in love with the reflection of our past and future selves and we thought that we could be more like that one person over there. And so we tried to do that. And maybe we created a bunch of schools in order to learn how to do that and how to survive.

We learned about different archetypes in school and we got to try those on, along with the costumes. Along the way we probably found some we liked and so we clung to those, refining and sorting over many lifetimes.

And then something kind of weird happens and all of a sudden none of those archetypes or costumes fit anymore. It's like we just don't want to play that game because we've done it for so long it is painful.

My daughter is seven and she has been really into making up games lately and she made one up the other night with a bowl full of different erasers. The erasers were shaped like more than a dozen various foods and drinks --- bananas, soda, doughnut, pie, hamburger. She instructed me to close my eyes and that we would take turns choosing an eraser from the bowl; she would tell me how many points it was worth. Did she write the point values down ahead of the game? No, she assured me. She remembered.

That is a game I would play for fun but I certainly wouldn't play to win. It was just the other day I may have seen a kid at her school trading a counterfeit $100 for a coloring book. Her teacher, Ms. Con, runs a classroom economy.

Probably I would have had an easier time as a financial journalist if I would have known my daughter sooner.

Who knows.

Systems of valuation are always shifting. Rules, by all names, are hardly ever followed. At this point, it might be impossible. And a lot of people still feel really upset about it and I do not blame them. I spent so much time studying the global financial system that I came out the other side; when you do that, you realize that the Earth, that existence, is what we make of it. What we believe, is what we give our power to. We are the source of the power.

When we are in patterns of logic, we believe one thing will happen because of something else. It’s sort of like, “If I have a new car, I will be happy.” That might be true, until it is not. Sometimes entire ipso facto systems become invalidated by our minds and we experience what is called an “evolutionary leap.”

When our systems of logic become illogical, we might remember that we were the ones powering those systems. We are the players, in the game. And we can change the rules whenever we like.

Right now, a whole new world is getting built on a new foundation. It is called, stewardship and enjoyment.

I wonder what Martin Luther King, Jr. would say about that.

To read about the pattern of the new energetic system and why it is happening now, check out my website at: https://www.allisonpyburn.com

Michael E. Gerber of Gerber Enterprises, LRT’s Impact Business Hero, intends - at the age of 85 - to pour his fine old wine of hard-earned enterprise-building wisdom into new bottles. Very new bottles - the youth of this world.

Michael is famed for having introduced the “E Myth” (“E” stands for Entrepreneur) book to hopeful businessmen-would-be’s back in the 80’s to public acclaim. This book and many of its “E-Myth” ilk afterwards, along with the driving force of Michael Gerber, turned this work into a publishing and training empire which at its height was touching millions of readers worldwide, and tens of thousands of clients.

While enjoying a rather busy “retirement,” he took a look at what was happening in the world around him and its failings: COVID, social media, cellphone addiction and an attention span slightly longer than a nanosecond, a huge number of businesses failing and a lot of people rudderless.

It was time to cull through his life’s work to find those tools which could be applied to today’s more complex society, and step back onto the stage. 

He concluded that at least one subset of our society could be salvaged – those from 14 to 18 years of age. (What’s that old saying – catch ‘em young and train ‘em right?) He decided to rethink his “Dreaming Room” concept and apply its success principles – how to become a successful entrepreneur – to address their hopes.

He decided to rethink his “Dreaming Room” concept and apply the success principles – how to become as successful entrepreneur – to address their hopes for a better existence than what they see around them today.

Gerber scoffs at the age difference as possibly standing in the way. “These kids were born in the image of God and imbued with the spirit of creation,” he says. 

“This is not from a religious sense or ideology, but in the larger world of spirituality. That’s their core, and one from which anything can happen if the proper tools are available. Their imagination and inspiration will provide the driving force, along with my tools, to help them create a more significant life.”

An Africa Spark

The idea for this refocusing of an aspect of his lifelong work came from a husband and wife student team in South Africa. Marlen and Hendrik Bohn were taking instruction at Michael’s Radical U. This five-year entrepreneurial development school sparked a dream of theirs – to transform the world of disadvantaged African youth. When they brought this idea to Michael’s door – he opened it warmly.

A “Dreaming Room” for the ages of 14-18 and a prospective Radical U spanning a shorter time and for much less than the $495 a year paid by adults is in the works. Will it speak differently to kids who appear to speak and think in digits? “No,” says Gerber, “this is what they will hear.”

“Do you have a cellphone nearby? Then turn it off! Your Digital Universe will never provide you and the spirit within you the answers you want. You weren’t created to be another ‘meme’ or digit in some meta-world. 

He continues, “With our mindset and methodology, you will find the answers to ‘Who am I,’ and ‘Where am I going?’ and, you will acquire the wisdom accrued in my almost 50 years of creating successful entrepreneurs to help you get what you and your soul deserves.”

Marlen and Hendrik Bohn couldn’t be more enthusiastic. “We can’t wait to see where this venture goes and how it will enable young people to create something meaningful for their lives that sustains them and impacts others.”

Those seeking more details about the construct and purpose of Radical U can head here.

On November 7, 2020, America stepped back from the cliff edge of re-electing a president known for showing disdain for democratic norms.

Fusing his own business interests with the White House and labeling the media as ‘enemies of the people,’ he hugged foreign strongmen, sidelined science and tried to turn the justice department into a political juggernaut.

At the end of the day, he distinguished himself as the first sitting president since 1800 to challenge a peaceful transition of power and America came bone chillingly close to collapsing.

Five unvarnished beams of democracy were exposed during the 2020 election cycle and many are asking ‘Is there hope to set them right?’

The Electoral College

The 2020 election is stored in many people’s memory banks as unbearably close.

It wasn’t close. At all.

Biden beat Trump with a lead of over 5 million votes in the popular vote. The Democratic contender ended up with the greatest proportion of any challenger since FDR in 1932.

While most democracies have polls to determine the winner by popular vote, America is stuck with an outmoded system which chooses the president not by ‘we the people,’ but by 538 electors.

Originally intended to insulate the presidency from democratic popular control by expanding power of the slaveholding states, the electoral college was inequitable from the start.

Sabeel Rahman, author of Democracy Against Domination, figures the electoral college gives GOP candidates a 4-5% advantage of Democratic rivals.

Despite that, there is almost no chance of the electoral college being trashed soon. A constitutional amendment would be required but in the partisan environment, an amendment would be impossible.

A glimmer of hope resides in the National Popular Vote compact where states agree to promise their electoral votes to whichever contestant wins the most votes nationally. 

Voter Suppression

Once the barriers to voting are known, the huge turnout in 2020 is more impressive. “We have seen this cycle an effort by the GOP to make it harder to vote — especially for black and minority populations,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of Protect Democracy.

 “I don’t know of another advanced democracy in the world where one of the two major political parties has invested in voter suppression as a core strategy,” added Bassin.

Among the tactics displayed were:

• Inaccurate purges of citizens from voter rolls,
• Undermining of the USPS, and
• Malicious robo calls in areas with large black populations, like Flint, Michigan.

The Senate

Mitch McConnell’s continued control of the Senate is a product of America’s flawed democracy. The make-up of the Senate chamber also has roots in the nation’s racist past.

“The structure of the Senate is an outdated Jim Crow relic meant to establish white power in our government by make land a priority over people,” said Deirdre Schifeling, campaign director of the coalition Democracy for All 2021.

If the GOP hangs on to the Senate by winning both runoffs for Georgia’s Senate seats in January 2022, the Democratic group will represent 20 million MORE Americans than the Republicans, yet still be in the minority. 

The distortion favors senators from low-population rural states and explains the GOP grip on Congress. But there’s a catch-22. Democrats, unable to push through democracy reforms, because of being blocked by unrepresentative GOP senators, yet without those reforms there is no hope of loosening the right-wing power grip.

Judges

As deputy director of the Texas Organizing Project, Brianna Brown has been battling against a GOP state legislature which has made Texas ground zero for voter suppression.

“We’ve had polling place reductions, massive voter purges, a voter-ID law – all attempts by the right wing to consolidate their power and shrink the electorate. If they can do that, they win,” she said.

Redistricting

The Democrats were baffled when the “blue wave” failed to show up at the state level. The GOP held on to power in Florida, Iowa, Minnesota and North Carolina while taking control in New Hampshire.

Better known as Gerrymandering, redistricting is a practice designed to create an arguably partisan political preference for a particular party or group by shaping the boundaries of electoral districts, which is most commonly used in first-past-the-post systems.

There are LOTS of things in this world that make the average person stop and scratch their head to wonder… "why exactly are we doing things this way?"

We all know that Electronic Health Records have made patients’ health records legible and readable--the days of illegible, one or two line patient notes written in doctors’ hieroglyphic “chicken scratch” penmanship are a thing of the past. As aptly described by Dr. Fred Pelzman, who writes often for www.kevinmd.com, electronic medical records were supposed to make our lives easier, communicate our thoughts in the moment of taking care of our patients, and leave a record that would help to make sure the next person taking up the care of that patient knows what came before.

But...the exact OPPOSITE is the net result across our nation. Electronic health records are one of the most commonly cited contributing factors that are thought to be a root cause of physician burn-out. Most Electronic Health Records produce a document that is very lengthy and detailed, but the resultant “note bloat” actually makes it more difficult to decipher what is going on with the patient.

Does that make sense??!! Of course, not.

We need sense-making in medicine and at Physician Outlook we are fortunate to be partnering with Let’s Rethink This, whose mission is to build and connect communities of like-minded individuals and organizations devoted to rethinking solutions to today’s biggest challenges. Through LRT I “met” a bright young entrepreneur and film-maker, Kistien Monkhouse, who is one of these ‘sense-making’ individuals.

Kistein Monkhouse, MPA, Founder of Patient Orator

Monkhouse is the creator of Patient Orator, an easy-to-use ”app” that helps ALL patients get equal medical treatment and facilitates care collaboration for patients,caregivers and he entire medical team AND she is also a film producer.

Humanizing Health Care is a narrativedriven emotionally paced documentary produced by Kistien Monkhouse about healthcare experiences in the U.S. The film explores deeply rooted systemic issues across the healthcare ecosystem and the barriers they present to people at each touchpoint in care delivery. By learning the history of institutionalized healthcare delivery, we can re-think how ALL Americans can work together to truly humanize healthcare.

Use code PatientOrator to view the film for free, and join us on the Let’s Rethink This platform for group discussions on how we can change physician and patient stories into solutions.

She is a Patient Orator who worked in the front lines of healthcare to help finance her education. While caring for underserved patients she identified a huge problem and came up with a solution. Patients of color from marginalized communities were not getting the same standard of care as other patients.

She is teaching patients (through the app) how to get equal medical treatment, how to record, track and share medical issues and social needs and how to better communicate medical symptoms. She also teaches patients how to get support with managing their health, connect to resources close to where they live, and make care collaboration easy for the patient, their caregiver and for the patient’s medical team.

She has developed a tool that is improving care coordination, empowering the voice of the patient and reducing the documentation burden of the clinician. Frustrated with a healthcare system that consistently placed value on profits above patients, she decided to do something about it.

She founded a company that has created an easy way for patients and providers to have meaningful conversations. Their team of experts have standardized how patients identify their health concerns, care preferences, and social needs. They are aligning social care organizations and medical providers with individuals to improve patient and community engagement, leveraging technology to improve health outcomes.

To learn more about the app, which is currently in development, visit Patient Orator.