Agency

“Awake my Soul” Mike Meyers (2011)

White Holes - An Exploration

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? 

Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? 

      Job 11:7(NIV)

There is a serious question regarding the existence of our “agency”!  More specifically, Robert Saplosky in his new book, “Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will” argues that there are biologic causes that can determine all the life outcomes we observe.  What is at stake with this determinism is our human identity, moral responsibility and the challenge of new technology.  We have told narratives that put our human condition on the pinnacle of the natural world.  It has been a terrible burden as we see the pain and suffering that we have produced.  To respond with “more agency” is to risk further delusion of our human power.  But to give up this idea of agency is risk falling into a nihilist and dystopian future.  

So what are the responses that places our ”agency” in another context?

The answer may in part lie with our “spiritual identity”.  We have begun to see this confirmed  by neuroscience.   We know this “spiritual identity” and that it can be recreated and now visualized by the fMRI technology.   What is even more amazing is how we interact with our environment and others.

So for me, the mystery of our “agency” is still present.  The precision with which we understand it is real but more than neuroscience.  Agency is found in new works of art and the predictions of astrophysicists.  It is Wonder Filled!

Marvin

References

Meyers, M. (2011) Awake my Soul

https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/

Sapolsky, R. M. (2023). Determined. Penguin.

Hage, M. L. (2018). Wonder.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2018/02/wonder.html

Hage, M. L. (2021). Timing Connections.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/09/timing-connections.html

Miller, L. (2021). The Awakened Brain. Random House.

Oliver JA; Sweitzer MM; Engelhard MM; Hallyburton MB; Ribisl KM; McClernon FJ   Identifying  neural signatures of tobacco retail outlet exposure: Preliminary validation of a "community neuroscience” paradigm.

Addiction Biology. 26(5):e13029, 2021 09.

Rovelli, C. (2023). White Holes. Penguin.

 

Pandemic Mourning

"Life in Rocky Places”

But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
    it strikes you, and you are dismayed. Job 4:5 (NIV)

There is a spiritual injury that is part of the Covid 19 pandemic.  You would expect this response to the millions of lives lost, but we have seen little public acknowledgement.  It is not even a political campaign issue! 

 

A recent Washington Post article describes the continued debates related to the health responses.  This is not an unknown phenomena.   It was reported when healthcare workers went from “heroes” to “villains”.  What is more amazing is that this “schizophrenia” has historical roots as reported in the medical history, “Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations” by Simon Schama.

What if we understood these phenomena as a kind of mourning? How would we respond to its symptoms?  Like our responses to other life losses, we would grieve together.  We would create a space for the grieving and we would memorialize the responses.  What is amazing is that we have rarely made those collective spaces or memorials.

Thanks be to God who weeps with us,

Marvin

References

Jaffe, G; Marley P. The pandemic is over in this Michigan county. The mistrust never ended.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/22/ottawa-county-michigan-covid-mistrust/

Schama, S. (2023). Foreign Bodies. HarperCollins.

Hage, M. L. (2021). Healing Memorials.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/08/healing-memorials.html

Arora, S; Bhatia, S: Addressing Grief and Bereavement in Covid-19 Pandemic

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9880143/

Loftis, M Engaging Embodied Lament Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/candlerdmin/2023/04/14/engaging-embodied-lament-following-the-covid-19-pandemic/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10178947/#:~:text=In the context of the,the novel disease.

Small Healing

Buckthorn - Invasive Species

Meijer’s Garden and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan

“The Covid-19 pandemic underscored how intricately interconnected and dependent on complex global systems we are and how full of vulnerabilities and inequalities those systems are.”

“Healing. Refugia are places to heal. We seek to create healing contexts for people and the earth. We recognize healing as redemptive work.”

Debra Reinstra

It makes a difference where you read!  Reading the book “Refugia Faith” in Western Michigan immediately connected me with the author Debra Rienstra.  The author is a professor of English at Calvin University who is a careful observer of our current plights.  She is particularly cognizant of the role of the Covid-19 pandemic and the precarity that has been introduced in our visions of the future.

In her book, she has managed to weave together an alternative vision of healing that looks for the small responses of each of us to address the BIG issues of our dilemmas.  There is no denial of our losses.  She describes a kind of resilience that has its roots in faith communities and an understanding of our connectedness to the “other” as found in the created world around us.  

For me, reading in a place that I have called “home” allowed me to see the “awe” in what I have frequently taken for granted or ignored.  

Thanks for the reminders of where healing is happening in the ordinary and small places of our lives no matter where you live!

Marvin

References

Rienstra, Debra. Refugia Faith (pages16, 227). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition

Hage, M. L. (2012). Kingdom Learning.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/02/kingdom-learning.html

Hage, M. L. (2013). Resistance/Resilience.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/08/resistanceresilience.html

Hage, M. L. (2017). Home.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/03/home.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). The Awe of Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/01/awe-of-healing.html

Can AI be a Healing Agent?

A new tool for life advice?

I just finished the book “Life Worth Living”.  It reminded me of my experiences with the classes “The Search for Meaning” and “Exploring Medicine”.  It was fun to reminisce about that period of my life, but there is a new kind of response in development - Artificial Intelligence.

There is no question that technology has had a tremendous impact on healthcare with both its benefits and burdens.  What has been clear is that the benefits have frequently been exaggerated and the hazards minimized.  The AI technology is at another level particularly as it confronts the issue of “agency”.  

For now, my answer is “no” as to AI being a “healing agent”.  Information is not a healing agent and healing does not happen outside of a community.  Healing requires a context and connection that happens in trusted relationships.  

There maybe administrative benefits of the AI technology, but there remains BIG questions about our humanity and this new information technology in healthcare.

Marvin

References

Volf, M., Croasmun, M., & McAnnally-Linz, R. (2023). Life Worth Living. Penguin.

Naylor, T. H., Willimon, W. H., & Naylor, M. R. (1994). The Search for Meaning.

Goswami, R. (2023).  Google reportedly building A.I. that offers life advice

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/08/16/google-reportedly-building-ai-that-offers-life-advice.html

Clark P; Kim J; Aphinyanaphongs, Y.  Marketing and US Food and Drug Administration Clearance of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Enabled Software in and as Medical Devices: A Systematic Review. 

JAMA Network Open. 6(7):e2321792, 2023 07 03

Bremmer, i, Suleyman, M  (2023)  The AI Power Paradox Can States Learn to Govern Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late?

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/artificial-intelligence-power-paradox

Hage, M. L. (2016). Future Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/09/future-healing.html

van der Laan, J. M.  (2016). Narratives of Technology (1st ed. 2016 ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

Precarity

Lake Michigan Holland, Michigan, 

Personal Photo - 8/8/2023

“The angst of facing mortality has no remedy in probability.”

Paul Kalmanthi

“It seems, when we’re doing life correctly, 

Other children and adults begin to see hope in one another.”

Brad  Montague

The reality of this post pandemic year puts me into the category of “survivor”.  Currently, my health has been good since I have still been able to participate in most events around me.  The larger question is more than just participation; it is purpose.  What am I called to be in this overtime post pandemic period?  

The changes that we are living since the “end” of the Covid 19 pandemic are difficult to articulate.  There have been major changes in our living as well as our institutions.  The word that seems to best describe this time of deep uncertainty is “precarity”.  It is this disorientation  that requires a reassessment of plans that we once thought of as secure.  The “fog” of Covid is more than an individual symptom but a definition of what we are all feeling.

The answer for me is to continue learning, but in a different kind of classroom than schools, clinics and operating rooms.  It is in listening and reading together.  It is with what have been given to me as gifts - younger lives around me that are also searching for meaning and direction.  

Marvin

References

Kalanithi, Paul. When Breath Becomes Air (p. 134). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Montague, Brad. Becoming Better Grownups (p. 107). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. . Becoming Better Grownups (p. 107). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

End of the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/end-of-phe.html#:~:text=What You Need to Know,share certain data will change.

Singh TK; Zidar DA; McCrae K; Highland KB; Englund K; Cameron SJ; Chung MK

A Post-Pandemic Enigma: The Cardiovascular Impact of Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. Circulation Research. 132(10):1358-1373, 2023 05 12.

Hage, M. L. (2020). Our Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/05/our-healing.html

Hage, M. L. (2022). Healing Ministries.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2022/06/healing-ministries.html