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Once upon a time, there was a small village on a river. The people were healthy and happy, and life in the village was peaceful. Then one day, a little girl saw a person floating down the river toward the village. She cried out for help, and her father jumped into the river and saved the stranger. That night they celebrated his heroism.

The next day, two more people appeared in the river. They were saved, as were the four who came down the day after. Life in the village became very difficult, centered around the work of saving more and more people from the river. The villagers were good people and hard workers, but eventually they were overwhelmed and could only save some of the people.

Finally, the little girl who had seen the first victim asked her father, “Where are these people coming from?” He thought for moment, and admitted that he had no idea. No one did. They had all been so caught up in saving the people in the river that they never stopped to think about why they were there. The next day he gathered together a small band of villagers to stop people from falling into the river, and they headed upstream.

This parable underscores the importance of preventative medicine. We need doctors who can help those who have been swept up in the current of illness, but our community also needs providers that look upstream and maintain the health of the population.