Healing Intersections

 

Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, Personal Photo 2012

“Science, in the form of innovative technologies, increasingly views the patient as an amalgam of dysfunctional parts, while the arts, since time immemorial, have probed the meaning of being human. The former focuses on curing a disease; the latter aims to heal a human being brimming with uncertainty, discomfort, and dread.”

Bernard Lown, M.D. in the forward of Scales to Scalpels

Our lives get compartmentalized and fragmented.  How can we find meaning and bring these components together particularly during this pandemic?

A recent novel by Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent kingdom, tells a story of the intersections of race, gender, faith and science.  It is a provocative tale of the cross cultural life of a Ghanaian immigrant to the southern town of Huntsville, Alabama.    Even though this is a fictional story, the protagonist’s story resonates with the real life of the author.  It is a captivating and beautifully written novel.  

In a different kind and earlier report, Lisa Wong, tells the true story of the Longwood Symphony in Scales to Scalpels.  This documentary explores the many facets of music and healing.  For the author, it is a kind of memoir of how this organization began, grew and has become  essential to the members of the orchestra.  It is an inspiring look into the souls of the “medical musicians”.

Most recently with the pandemic the world has been introduced to the National Virtual Medical Orchestra.  We get to hear some beautiful music and see the the “medical musicians”.  This has become a way of finding healing at the intersection of these disciplines as reported by the PBS NewsHour.  

So here is a template for each of us as we are confronted by the increasing stresses of a pandemic and social chaos.  We need to confront the chaos with the healing arts that have been given to each of us and share with others.  If you don’t like classical music, you might want to try Quarantine Blues - you will feel better after listening!

Marvin

References

Gyasi, Y. (2020). Transcendent kingdom (First edition. ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Wong, L. (2012). Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine: The Story of the Longwood Symphony Orch. Open Road Media.

National Virtual Medical Orchestra

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/09/900523029/meet-the-medical-professionals-playing-classical-music-together-online

Quarantine Blues

Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra & Wynton Marsalis

Hage, M. L. (2013). Healing Music

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/05/healing-music.html

Hage, M. L. (2019). New Year Prescription

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-year-prescription.html

Healing Disconnections

 

 

Prison Cell of Nelson Mandela

Robben Island, South Africa

Personal Photo, 2012

                  

Edmund Pettus Bridge

Selma, Alabama      

Personal Photo, 2020

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 29:39 (NIV)

Africa, the cradle of humanity, has given America a priceless gift

—the language of Ubuntu.”

Mark Mathabane,

How do we heal our disconnections?  Can ideas of unity prevail over the ideas of power and privilege?  We need big ideas that result in resolution.  We need courage to cross the rivers that deeply divide us.

One such unifying and powerful idea that has provided a framework of healing responses is “ubuntu”.  It has roots in South African Zulu culture.   It was the underlying idea of the transition from apartheid to a more inclusive society in South Africa.  How can we learn and implement this idea?  

We need cross-cultural reporters like Mark Mathabane, but we also know what ”ubuntu” looks like in the lives of Rep. John Lewis and C.T. Vivian.  Their works are described as “love in action”!  

We need to “see” what connects us.  Together we can pursue connections within our best faith traditions and its music.  We will find our lives filled with purpose, meaning and beauty.  Our stories and songs of unity have and will reveal that healing!  Check out the song “Glory” from the movie “Selma” that reveals what “ubuntu” looks like in America.

Marvin

References

Mathabane, M. (2018) The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can Inspire Racial Healing in America (p. 235). Skyhorse. Kindle Edition. 

Bumley, L (2020) John Lewis and C.T. Vivian belonged to a long tradition of religious leaders in the civil rights struggle.

https://generocity.org/philly/2020/07/20/john-lewis-and-c-t-vivian-belonged-to-a-long-tradition-of-religious-leaders-in-the-civil-rights-struggle/

Hage, M. L. (2012). Rx Ubuntu.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/04/rx-ubuntu.html

Common and John Legend, “Glory” from the movie Selma, 2014

Healing Images

God’s First Covenant

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, 

and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  

Genesis 9:13 (NIV)

Staff of Aesculapius

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”   So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Numbers 21:8-9 (NIV)

In a time of chaos and pandemics, we all are looking for either old or new prescriptions for healing.   Where will we find relief?  When will it end?   Can images promise healing?

Walter Brueggemann and Thomas Wright present biblical responses to the current pandemic, but the threat is even bigger than just the disease!   The economic and social effects are severe in their own dimensions.  People around the world are frightened and grieving.  I was left with the conclusion that the essence of the pandemic responses are ones of faith.  

The added reality were the horrible images of death delivered by the hands of others.  Those images seemed to change everything.  Whole populations found something they were willing to die for and walls of separation and distance began to disappear.

Historically, we have seen the pentecostal moments of communities of faith (Azusa Street Revival) and it could be argued that we are seeing one again.  The movement is still not completely defined, but there is no question it is a time of seismic shifts in our thinking.

Can we expect healing?  My answer is “Yes” and one that has been promised to all of us.  We have had to look hard at what has wounded us as communities and individuals.  More importantly, we are faced with the question “Will we live into the healing promises of the images?”  We have seen glimpses of a deeper healing that is more than just a cure for a viral infection.

Thanks be to the God who hears and sees the suffering of his children.

Marvin

References:

Brueggemann W (2020) Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Times of Loss, Grief and Uncertainty.  Cascade d

Wright, T (2020) God and the Pandemic. Zondervan

Brooks, D (2020) America is facing 5 Epic Crises All at Once

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/us-coronavirus-protests.html

Hage, M. L. (2014). The Arc of Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-arc-of-healing.html

Azuza Street Revival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azusa_Street_Revival

Hage, M. L. (2013). Reconciliation and Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/12/reconciliation-and-healing.html

Shalal, A. After George Floyd's death, a groundswell of religious activism

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-usa-religion/after-george-floyds-death-a-groundswell-of-religious-activism-idUSKBN23G1FSweew

Healing Faith

“The Medical Center and Women’s Hospital” Kemnitz 1967

University of Michigan Graduation Gift

  

 Victor C. Vaughn   

Francis Collins

God is our refuge and strength,

    an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

    and the mountains quake with their surging.

Selah

Psalm 46: 1-3 (NIV)

I just finished a very difficult book, John Barry’s “The Great Influenza”.   It is an epic story that details a megadisaster in this country and around the world.  It is a document of the world at war with each other and an unknown pathogen.   It is a document of failures.

The logical question would be “Why is it a best seller”?  “Why has it been rewritten, updated and republished?”. 

My answer, it is also a document of the dedication of medical scientists searching for the cause, preventive measures and effective therapy.  The author tells the story of the “responders” and their missions and dedication.  It is a story that connected to my educational heritage at the University of Michigan.  It is story of the leadership of William Welch from John Hopkins and Victor Vaughn from the University of Michigan.

So how do we read this story today?  Will we “win” or will we find that the struggle is the real story?  Will we remember the losses?  Will our failures lead to new dedication to address the unequal distribution of suffering and death?  Will we learn deeper lessons of faith and healing?   Who will be the person(s) of faith that will lead and inspire us?  Is there another “Michigan answer?”

To be continued,

Marvin

References:

Barry, J. M. (2005). The great influenza: the epic story of the deadliest plague in history. Penguin.

Dr. Lewis — Pathologist gave life working to save lives

https://bayviewcompass.com/dr-lewis-—-pathologist-gave-life-working-to-save-lives/

Navy and 'Great Influenza' Changed the World

https://navyreads.blogspot.com/2020/02/navy-and-great-influenza-changed-world.html

NIH Director Francis Collins Wins $1.3M Templeton Prize

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/may/francis-collins-nih-wins-templeton-prize-biologos-genome.html

Hage, M. L. (2014). The Big Why.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-big-why.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). Burdens and Benefits

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/01/burdens-and-benefits.html

Our Healing

Map of the COVID-19 verified number of infected per capita as of 6 May 2020.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: 

The old has gone, the new is here!   

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

There is no disagreement that we all are desperately seeking healing during this pandemic.  It seems like it is the only thing that unites us. 

I just finished two recently published books that addresses our health.  The first, “Together” by Vivek Murphy addresses the disease of “loneliness” that has been endemic in the United States.  The author was the 19th Surgeon General who looked for threats to our health like Surgeon Generals before him - think of smoking or vaping.  He surgically identifies the many faces of loneliness and then describes the efforts of reconnecting people and communities.

The second book, “Universal Christ” by Richard Rohr addresses a historical split in the Christian church that has kept us apart from each other and our spiritual healing.   He makes a strong case for a new unity in our world - a healing of our separatist and individualistic culture.  He sees “Christ” as the open arms of the church to the world.

For me, these two books capture the the paradox of the pathology of this pandemic.  We are physically separated but spending more time connecting and reconnecting with each other and our communities.  We are fearful of others but at the same time want to touch and be touched.  We want to return to a nostalgic past and at the same moment long for a new future.

For me, the healing prescription is “remembering forward”.   It is an acknowledgement that “opening up” will not be looking back to the way “it used to be”.   It is imagining and being a new creation.  The church is a critical response to this deep desire for healing.  The church knows, lives and shares the story of this healing we seek.   As individuals we can tell that story.

One such personal report of  Covid19 was made by Wynton Marsalis on the death of his father, Ellis,   He shares and honors his father’s life and plays his beautiful trumpet.  It is worth a listen to both his words and the  music.  If you listen you will hear echos of the words of Vivek Murphy and Richard Rohr.  This is what healing looks and sounds like.

Marvin

References:

Map of the COVID-19 verified number of infected per capita as of 6 May 2020.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-06/u-s-infections-rise-1-9-below-week-s-average-virus-update

Murthy, V. H. (2020). Together : the healing power of human connection in a 

sometimes lonely world (First edition. ed.). New York, NY: Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Rohr, R. (2019). Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe. Convergent Books.

Hage, M. L. (2012). Vocation & Retirement.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/07/vocation-retirement.html

"He had a world view." Wynton Marsalis on late father

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wynton-marsalis-on-late-father-60-minutes-2020-04-12/

Watch Wynton Marsalis’ moving musical tribute to his father, pianist Ellis Marsalis

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=258911398617788

Healing Blessings 2020

Easter Sunrise - 2019 

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

Blessed be the Lord,

    who daily bears us up;

    God is our salvation. Selah

Psalm 68:19 (NRSV) 

For me, this year’s Lenten season has had a monastic character that has slowed me down.    We all searched for comfort.  I like others found it in words and music.   Take a listen to Sissel singing with the Tabernacle Choir.

We also searched for answers to existential questions  -  What does it all mean?  How do we redeem our days?  How do we reconnect?  What about our plans?  How long will this last?

For me, this Easter answers are found in new kinds of creativity, research ideas that ask hard questions, new directions found in young lives, the rededication of older lives to their vocations and the blessings of remembering and reconnecting with friends, family and community. 

That is what Easter 2020 looks like to me.  I pray that all our lives will experience this newness that has been promised to the world and that God’s Grace continue to finds its way into our traumatized lives. 

May this Easter lead us all to see the sunrise Light of a new beauty in this world.

Shalom,

Marvin

References

Sissel - Slow Down ft. The Tabernacle Choir (Live at Temple Square)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqwSF7Wms-0

Sissel Talks: «Slow Down»

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fuBfJgXloI

Hage, M. L. (2019). The Saturday of Light.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-saturday-of-light.html

Comfort & Mercy

USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy

“Tell us please, what treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?"....I met his gaze and I did not blink. "Words of comfort," I said to my father.” 

― Abraham Verghese in “Cutting for Stone”

“These clinical moments lay bare the normative and moral work of physicians, endeavors that have historically provided the foundation for sustained therapeutic activity between patients and physicians. They also reveal a larger truth that if the arc of medicine is to ultimately bend toward healing, mercy will be its fulcrum.” 

- TP Daaleman

Blessed are the merciful,

    for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7 (NIV)

The ships USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy have sailed and arrived at the ports of need.  What are we to understand of how their mission will live into their names?  What do we understand about those names and the missions of healing in so many places of need?  

“Healing Comfort” is not comfortable. There are risky and vulnerable acts that "sail" directly into the threat and stand with those who are both infected and inflicted with suffering.  It is an act of Love.  We have seen it before and we know it when we see it.  It is found in places and activities that we usually label as the “arts”.  For Christians, it is found in the symbol of the “red cross” on the sides of both these ships.

“Healing Mercy” is not about what we do.  It is about what we receive.  It is free.  It requires an openness and receptivity that is not a common human behavior.  It is part of the same reality of God’s Grace.  It is a particular reality  during Lent as we come to more deeply understand and celebrate new realities in our lives.  

We have stories to tell about how our lives will be changed by these two prophetic words of Hope.

Thanks be to the God of Comfort and Mercy.

Marvin

References:

USNS Mercy, USNS Comfort: 2020 COVID-19 Deployment (26 March 2020)

https://navylive.dodlive.mil/2020/03/26/usns-mercy-usns-comfort-2020-covid-19-deployment/

Verghese, A. (2010). Cutting for Stone (1st ed.). Vintage Books.

Daaleman TP. A piece of my mind. The quality of mercy: will you be my doctor?.

JAMA.  312(18):1863-4, 2014 Nov 12.

Hage, M. L. (2015). The Challenge.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-challenge.html