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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

A Wellness Perspective on Samuel Butler's Erewhon (Encore 2)

Monday December 15, 2003

In his delightful satirical classic Erewhon, Samuel Butler described a utopian society where illness was an embarrassment, a condition to be covered up, as in a moral transgression. It was a commentary on moral or ethical struggles. Samuel Butler, like George Orwell, wrote social commentaries on the mores of his time and place. In Erewhon society, to be ill was much worse than a faux pas -- it was a punishable offense. Crime, on the other hand, was simply a condition (like an illness), to be cured with care and compassionate treatment. Butler (1835-1902) was a great wit, and is often quoted today. A few of my favorites Butlerisms are:

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
Life is not an exact science, it is an art.
As a promoter of lifestyles based on self-management leading to lifestyle artistry, I especially like the last noted sentiment of Butler's.

Butler also wrote Erewhons of the Eye and The Way of All Flesh. The former shows he was a pioneer of photography and art criticism. With 176 superb illustrations -- including twenty in full color and eighty rare photos, Butler made a substantial contribution to both the practice and t/he criticism of the visual arts. Quite a guy.

No, Erewhon was never intended to portray a utopian wellness-oriented community. No, I do not favor viewing illness as an embarrassment, a condition to be covered up or a moral transgression. I am injured too often for that! However, I do appreciate good sarcasm as an antidote to the proliferation of speech codes and anti-harassment rules. Nobody has a right never to be offended. Freedom of speech and the right not to be offended are mutually exclusive. Thus, we would not want to live in a society where we were never offended! As for wellness-oriented utopias, forget it. There is no utopian community, never has been and hopefully never will be. We must create our own partial utopias within the non-wellness oriented communities in which we live.

Be well. Enjoy the quest and ALOTBSOL.

(This article was first published December 14, 2001)

Domain: mental
Subdomain: emotional intelligence

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