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