I’m not complaining. My father is staying in a pretty good hospital, but if I ran the zoo (a reference to that amazing Dr. Seuss book), man-oh-man, everything would be different. My ideal hospital would be a center for true renewal where colors, music, foods, and technicians would all contribute to the healing process. Could such a place be broadly appealing? I think so.

But questions arise, even as I fantasize: Would Enya’s music piped into the elevator soothe or annoy patients? Would the chiropractors and osteopaths come to hate the orthopedic surgeons? Will the chef drive me out of business with huge bills for high-priced organic food? Where should the juice bar go–next to the gift shop or nearer the yoga/therapeutic movement studio? Could the nurses and orderlies be engaged in their own healing process, be sufficiently rested, not overweight? Would the Feng Shui-ed lobby seem too Asian-influenced for some people’s tastes? Would the gals in the aromatherapy division get sufficient respect? Oh, and here’s a good one: Could the doctors have real conversations with their patients? And could the pain management experts and the anesthesiologists not hammer every patient over the head with their big-gun narcotics?

Could the suffering associated with most illnesses be seen as a challenge, as well as an opportunity to change or grow?

At first glance, my dream hospital sounds like a chaotic place. But by the time you and I are elderly, gentle reader, there will be hospitals and healing centers struggling to balance all this good stuff. The town of Woodbury, Minnesota, for instance, boasts a “holistic hospital” that features complementary therapies. And in nearby Minneapolis, a cardiovascular surgeon from the Minneapolis Heart Institute recently conducted a study that shows heart surgery patients receiving alternative treatments, “including music, massage and guided imagery,” experience “less pain and tension during recovery than patients who receive standard care.”

We’ll return to this subject. I’d love to know what you think. Obviously, AFFORDING all these “extras” at a time when many Americans lack the most rudimentary health care is the BIG issue. But perhaps, by the time many of us die (or even before it), nearly everyone will have access to fresh thinking on the subject of health and healing.