Dear 5th grade Julia,
There are so many things I wish I could have told you when you wrote this yearbook bio circa 2004. (1) Kit Kat Bites will tragically go extinct, (2) the self-administered haircuts were a no-go, (3) approximately 0 people will call you “sportswiz”.

But more than your mistakes, I’d tell you one thing were right about: today, on June 11th, your book, THE CONNECTION CURE, will hit the stands in the US and the UK. You will officially become a “writer” — something you could have only dreamed about— and it will be with your dream publisher at Simon & Schuster.

Of course, you didn’t achieve this—or any bit of good fortune—alone. You’ll learn, even more with time, that your success is a product of the people who believed in, listened to, and unconditionally supported you.

In fact, this will be the core thesis of your book: our health is a product of our social environment.

This is not a new idea: ancient thinkers have proven it time and again. But your book will be among the first to report on the rapidly growing practice bringing that idea to life: social prescribing.

Some social prescriptions are for the activities that you take for granted now, fifth grade Julia: Playing sports. Swimming in the ocean. Exploring nature. Writing poetry. Joining a book club. Singing in a choir. Volunteering for the park cleanup. Sharing meals with neighbors.

You won’t appreciate it then, but you’ll realize, when you repeat these activities twenty years later as you report on social prescribing, that you were actually chasing some of the best kinds of medicine: Childlike wonder. A sense of joy. A search for meaning. And you were chasing these medicines with other people — building the kind of relationships proven to help you live a long, healthy life.

Anyway, you’ll have a blast taking these social prescriptions again—finding them medicinal for your occasional bouts of sadness, distraction, worries, frustration, and loneliness that comes with the human experience. And as you write this book, you’ll believe more and more in everyone’s right to have social prescriptions, so that they, too, have the medicine they need to make the their 5th grade dreams come true.
—-
To my family, friends-turned-family, colleagues-turned-friends, and wonderful connections all around the globe: thank you for demonstrating the thesis of this book firsthand.

Through it all , you’ve been MY social prescription. And as we celebrate the release of The Connection Cure today (some ideas to do that here), know that it exists thanks to you.

Thanks for reading The Connection Cure! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.