Healing Authority

  

“Changing our views”

Cloud Gate - Chicago Millenium Park

 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ 

you find yourselves cared for.” Matthew 5:7 (MSG)

“Because being moral is crucial to maintaining important relationships and being part of a community, recovery from moral injury is not an individual achievement. It is a relational process that restores our sense of worthiness to be loved, sustains our families and communities, and nurtures creativity, curiosity, and a love of beauty and life.”

Rita Nakashima Brock, from “An epidemic of moral injury”

When I first began medical practice, medical authority was unquestioned and it seemed like “authority” was good.  Unknown to me was that  the “authority” I inherited was partially the result of white male privilege.  As my professional path continued more authority rested on the merits of the scientific method and the rewards its technology brought to patients.  In the 60’s we began to hear the phrase “Question Authority” and  in the information age we all have tools to challenge that authority.

But now we have moved from “question” to “rejection” with threats and real violence.  We have our conversations limited and witness reports questioned.  We have all felt a deep loss that is described as moral injury.  The real problem is not the diagnosis of moral injury, but the prescription.  Can we build new understandings and relationships that will promote well being?  Who will be the partners in the health care responses?   

One encouraging recent example comes from the state of Colorado.  The Colorado report emphasizes the importance of partnership, dialogue and listening as the modus operandi of faith communities with the healthcare institutions.  Trusted relationships are repurposed to address pandemic challenges.

Professional privileges have always been contingent on the relationships to those we serve.  For faith-based providers (healing agents),  practice begins in the community of faith.  It is the foundation for healing authority.  

Marvin

References

Brock, Rita Nakashima An epidemic of moral injury. The Christian Century.  

September 1, 2021

Williams JTB; Miller A; Nussbaum AM  Combating Contagion and Injustice: The Shared Work for Public Health and Faith Communities During COVID-19.

 Journal of Religion & Health. 60(3):1436-1445, 2021 Jun.

Hage, M. L. (2011). Gift Reflections

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/10/gift-reflections.html

Hage, M. L. (2019). Healing Cultures.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/06/healing-cultures.html

Hage, M. L. (2021). Listening Again.

https://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/04/listening-again.html

Timing Connections

North Carolina Sea Turtles

“If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.” 

African Proverb

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

It was an odd coincidence!  After remotely listening to a sermon on “Belonging”, I switched live-streams and was introduced to a new book by psychologist, Lisa Miller, PhD, “The Awakening Brain”.  The book addresses the neuroscience of our “connectivity”.  In this book the spiritual dimension of our lives is examined with scientific rigor in a personal memoir format.  One of her fascinating  recurring experiences is the synchrony of events.  She makes the argument that there is an underlying “time” reality that connects us with each other and the world around us.

I have lived within the reality of obstetric time - obstetric seasonality and circadian rhythms.  Most of my interest was “within” not “between” individuals.  But now, there is a new approach in obstetrics!  “Centering antenatal care“ is a group care model designed to improve obstetric outcomes using facilitated support groups.   It has worked well within specific demographic groups.  Could it be that there is a biologic power of deep connectedness that maximizes obstetric outcomes?  Maybe that synchrony is the mechanism of action.

For me, this strategy for healing goes beyond the individual to the power of a connected community.  They have the power of healing.  It is what communities of faith have done in building deep spiritual connections.

Thanks be to God for timing connections,

Marvin

References:

Hage, M. L. (2011). Faithful Minds.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/05/faithful-minds.html

Hagerty, B. B. (2010). Fingerprints of God: What Science Is Learning About the Brain and Spiritual Experience (Reprint ed.). Riverhead Trade.

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

Wolchover, N.  Scientists Discover Exotic New Patterns of Synchronization

https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-exotic-patterns-of-synchronization-20190404/

Hage, M. L. (2019). Healing Time.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/07/healing-time.html

Hage, M. L. (2019). Healing Time - Part II.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/09/healing-time-part-ii.html

ACOG Committee Opinion No. 731 Summary: Group Prenatal Care. Obstet Gynecol 2018;131(3):616-618

Healing Memorials

  

Plague Column - Pestsäule 

Vienna, Austria Dedicated 1694 

“Art in Lockdown”

Collage by Nathan Wyburn 

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 2016, I was introduced to Pestsäule, the memorial monument to “one of the last big plague epidemics in Europe”.   It was a short introduction that seemed remote to my experience.  Now, I have a new appreciation of the importance of memorials particularly as they relate to the uncontrollable events in our lives.

I would suggest that we have some real work ahead to respond and create icons of the Covid19 pandemic.  The United States used existing memorials to remember 400,000 deaths with flags, lights and songs.  We have told stories of lives lost on social media as we all recounted how our lives have changed.   How will we capture in a more permanent way the meanings of these moments?  What icons will work across the multiple cultures effected by this pandemic?  Where will the new art and knowledge take us as a world?  It could be a time of great creativity, a pandemic renaissance.

Healing memorials are effective places of active remembering that help us see and create in new ways!  So even as the “endgame” is still unclear, memorializing the healing responses are a critical component of this pandemic’s history.

Thanks be to God for places and images that heal.

Marvin

References

Plague Column, Vienna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_Column,_Vienna

Joe Biden holds memorial for 400,000 Americans who have died of Covid-19

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/19/biden-coronavirus-memorial-us-deaths-ceremony

Sonnevend J. A virus as an icon: the 2020 pandemic in images. Am J Cult Sociol. 2020 Oct 6:1-11. doi: 10.1057/s41290-020-00118-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33042541; PMCID: PMC7537773.

Art in Lockdown

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-the-incredible-art-created-in-lockdown-11987230

How Pandemics Wreak Havoc—and Open Minds

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-pandemics-wreak-havoc-and-open-minds

Hage, ML(2021). All is Grace.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/01/all-is-grace.html

Kofman, A; Kantor, R; Adashi, EY

Potential COVID-19 Endgame Scenarios: Eradication, Elimination, Cohabitation, or Conflagration?  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2781945

Transitions

God’s business is putting things right;

    he loves getting the lines straight,

Setting us straight. Once we’re standing tall,

    we can look him straight in the eye.

Psalm 11:7 (MSG)

This has been the time of the year for graduations for the younger generations.  Transitions also happens to the senior citizens but at less predictable times both by choice and by uncontrollable events.  

 

For the graduates and senior citizens alike, transitions are filled with unknowns and uncertainty.  There are plans and expectations.  What seems most real to me is the disorientation of changing locations.  Where you are present is an important part of our idea of what you do and your identity.  

My current experience is that of leaving where I have lived and worked for the last 22 years.  It was a good chapter.  Today is a kind of limbo of the betweenness of places.  It makes me wonder how the nomads of then and now adjusted to these multiple dislocations.  It was the reason that the recent movie, “Nomadland” was so popular.

In an extensive investigation, author Bruce Feller explores his own life story as well as looking to others.  His emphasis is that life stories are not linear - predictable or clear in the direction they take.  It helped me to see the broader dimensions of my own story and life chapters.  What seems to be missing* is the idea of vocation that I have addressed before.  That vocational  reality in my life has been the reason I have failed retirement multiple times!   

In summary, this current transition is another life chapter change but still the quest of being a healing agent remains.  That quest is still straight ahead!

References

Nomadland

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9770150

Feiler, B. (2020). Life is in the transitions: Mastering change at any age. Penguin Press.

Hage, M. L. (2010). The “Telos” for Christian Healing Agents.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2010/12/telos-for-christian-healing-agents.html

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

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

Hage, M. L. (2014). Healing Purpose

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/06/healing-purpose.html

Hage, M. L. (2015). Healing Work.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2015/09/healing-work.html

• Feiler, Bruce. Life Is in the Transitions (p. 117). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. There was one brief mention of “vocation” as reported by Tami Trottier: “I never doubted, because there’s a difference between a vocation and a calling. Once I discovered what I was supposed to be doing, I knew nothing could stop me.”

 

Strangers-Neighbors-Kin

Circle of Life - Chinese Paper cut

Personal Copy

“Which is most important of all the commandments?”  Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”

Mark 12:28b-31 (MSG)

In a recent edition of Christian Century, Ashley Makar shares reflections of Congolese immigrants during a civil rights pilgrimage.  She also reflected on her own history and friendships with immigrants from South Sudan escaping to Israel.  Here is one summary message from one of the teenagers:

“Some histories are brutal, doing the beautiful takes forever.”. Gladys Mwilelo

This caught my attention because of a friendship with a Congolese family over the last five years.  This friendship is on multiple levels given the ages of individuals.  What is most rewarding has been the transition from strangers to neighbors and now kin.  It takes time and a community.  It takes patience to learn together.

At its best, our journey is more than just learning.  It is captured in part by this quote from the novel, Transcendent Kingdom.

I wanted, above all else, to be good. And I wanted the path to that goodness to be clear. I suspect that this is why I excelled at math and science, where the rules are laid out step by step, where if you did something exactly the way it was supposed to be done, the result would be exactly as it was expected to be. “If you are living a godly life, a moral life, then everything you do can be a prayer,” my mother said. “Instead of trying to pray all day, live your life as prayer.”

This kind of prayer life is where joy finds all of us - thanks for the gifts of new kindred relationships.

Marvin

References

Makar, A. From Kinshasa to Montgomery: A civil rights pilgrimage through the eyes of Congolese refugee teenagers

https://www.christiancentury.org/issue/apr-21-2021

Makar, A. (2014). You were strangers: Dispatches from exile. Amazon Kindle.

Gyasi, Yaa. Transcendent Kingdom (p. 52). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Boyle, G. (2017). Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. Simon & Schuster.

Listening Again

Church School Vaccination Station

Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart,

    and good news gives health to the bones.

Proverbs 15:30 (NIV)

This past Sunday afternoon, I was a guest volunteer at a neighboring Church School.  We provided the first Covid vaccine doses to a predominantly Latinx community.  This school location was another “location chapter” in my new vocation of vaccinator.  

It felt like the times in Honduras being part of a “brigada médica”, the last being in 2014.  It was busy and as before the lines were long with very patient people.  They were younger than at the other locations and very appreciative on receiving the vaccine.  Their arms were muscular.  

What I heard again were questions and stories of what and how this vaccine would change their lives.  For many, it was a key to safer employment.  For senior high school students, it was a door to their future education.   This school became again a place of hope.

For me, it was a place to learn again the lessons of the past and celebrate the renewal of a  friendship of “hermanos y hermanas”.  Churches, schools and medical care are still deeply related to each other.

Gracia a dios.

Marvin

References

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

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/03/promised-healing.html

Hage, M. (2014). Hearing Stories.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/04/hearing-stories.html

Imber, J. B. (2008). Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine (1 ed.). Princeton University Press.

Duckett K. Behind the Mask: New Challenges to Gaining Patient Trust.

Home Healthcare Now. 38(6):327-330, 2020 Nov/Dec.

Promised Healing

Vaccination Stations

He heals the brokenhearted

    and binds up their wounds,

Psalm 147:3 (NIV)

This Lenten - Easter 2021 has been a particularly strange combination of Covid-19 fatigue and the hope of vaccinations. Two weeks after my own vaccination, I was chosen to be a vaccinator as a retired physician with a medical license.   It was a new medical role!  

I became part of a system that was being built with other volunteers and donated space.  It was an efficient system with robust documentation.  It was a part of even larger systems of reporting and monitoring.  Safety was critical with preparations for unexpected and rare reactions.

What I saw at first were only the arms in front of me and the task of the jab.  My first group were K-12 teachers and then college professors.  They were part of the larger priority allocation plan.   I worked in a donated theatre lobby near the food concessions.   The next experience was a “drive-in” at the backside of the the theatre with individuals of limited mobility.  The challenge was not just arms but this outdoor setting.  Wind and documents are incompatible!  

My last location was in a hospital surgical entrance giving the second dose.  It was in this setting I started to hear stories in response to the question, “How will this vaccination change your life?”  Most had specific ideas of what the future would hold.   This is when, by hearing their answers, I started to be part of the larger story of promised healing.   We are all invited into this bigger Easter 2021 story.

Thanks be to God.

Marvin

References

NHRMC Giving Community Vaccinations At Local Movie Theater 

Wilmington Business, Jan 21, 2021

http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/coronavirus/2021/01/21/nhrmc_giving_community_vaccinations_at_local_movie_theater/21396

Hage, ML. (2020). Easter Blessings 2020.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/04/healing-blessings-2020.html

Hage, ML. (2020). Public & Personal Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/11/public-personal-healing.html

Hage, ML  (2021). All is Grace.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/01/all-is-grace.html