September 17-19, 2004
“The most revolutionary act one can commit in our world is to be happy,” says Patch Adams. This retreat is about having passion and living life to the fullest. It is for people who want to dream big, to explore those dreams, and to give them substance. It will be led by two crazed, creative visionaries who love to engage people and, between them, have 60 years of experience designing ways for people to follow dreams. Love is a powerful medicine. Giving is the greatest wealth-giver. We need each other more deeply than we dare to admit, and we can show our love.
Patch Adams may be the most unusual physician in America. A clown and healer, he believes healing should be a loving human interchange, not a business transaction. He has dedicated his life to developing a prescription for the ills of our health-care system.
Come to this retreat to learn why the best therapy is being happy. Learn the difficult and challenging steps to becoming sillier and sillier. Learn how to promote wellness through joy, laughter, friendship, loving kindness, wonder, curiosity, faith, exercise, family, and a love of nature.
As a young man, Patch Adams empathized with another human being, and his life was changed. As a doctor, he befriended his patients, and his medical practice became a doorway to loving people. Patch and his friends founded Gesundheit Institute in 1971, and it has provided 15,000 people with free medical care and friendship. They’re building a 40-bed hospital in rural West Virginia that will also be free. His seven clowning tours in Russia (nasal diplomacy) have focused on children in hospitals and orphanages. His “zestful exuberance” (Time) is the subject of the movie Patch Adams, which stars Robin Williams as Patch. Susan Parenti is a composer, playwright, and poet who has toured for 20 years with the experimental music and theatre group, the Performer’s Workshop Ensemble. She is a founding member of the School for Designing a Society, held in Urbana, where people of all ages learn how to “compose” their lives and “design” themselves. She is so passionate, it’s almost an obsession.