The Saturday of Light

Spire of Notre-Dame

(July, 1962)

Cross in Notre-Dame de Paris after the fire 

(4/15/2019)

The fire of Holy Week 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris, brings attention to a long history of church fires and their origin in hatred and separation.  What does it mean for a “people of the resurrection”?  

One answer appears in our confessions that happen as we state our belief in all the events before the resurrection.  That event appears in the Apostle’s Creed, “he descended into Hell”.  We so often miss this part of the Easter story!  This was the message of Kate Bowler in her Lenten reflection, “The Harrowing of Hell”.  She tells it better, so take a listen!

So the triumph of Easter is not just triumph over death, it is also the promise of triumph over evil and all of “Hell’s Fires”.   In the city of “lights and shadows” the world has seen the Light that overcomes the darkness of Hell.  What a healing word of Hope that we can celebrate this “Saturday of Light”.

Marvin

References: 

Personal Photo from when I first visited Notre-Dame de Paris

CBC News,  Macron Promises to Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral after fire, seeks international help.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/notre-dame-paris-fire-1.5098604

Willimon, W,  Arsonists at Play: Church Burnings in Alabama

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2006-04/arsonists-play

Bowler, K.  The Harrowing of Hell

https://katebowler.com/the-harrowing-of-hell/

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

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

Resilient Improvisation

Reverend Marvin Chandler

I just finished a book, Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World.  It was one of many books addressing the realities of what seems like in an increasingly chaotic world.   The name of the chaos changes depending on the context, but in healthcare it is usually described as “burnout”.    Is it the pace of change?  Is it “moral injury”?  What ever it is called, we all have seen and lived it.  

One week later, I heard another voice, Mary Ann McBidden Dana, the author of God, Improv, and the Art of Living.  There is a similarity to Type R in looking for answers but the approach and the basis of the response is different.  It is “improvisation”!  How could that be in world of plans and schedules?

I recalled a wonder filled moment in 2006, when I met Rev. Marvin Chandler in Indianapolis, Indiana.  It was on a Sunday evening at 6 pm when I visited Second Presbyterian Church.   It was The Jack Gilfoy Trio with Rev. Marvin Chandler playing effortlessly at the piano.   It was awesome.  I really didn’t know his story, but found it in a recent PBS documentary that revealed a life of improvisation   Other people had been moved by his life story.  Check out the documentary, “Reverend Marvin Chandler: Open to the Moment”.

What is central is a search for meaning and purpose in our lives.  The answers are as complex as our lives.  There are “BIG” ideas and real lived experiences as we all look to “connect the dots” and create some beautiful music in the moments of our lives.  We  need to connect our lives to these larger ideas and the lives around us. Those responses are more improv than planned.  

Marvin

References:

Marston, A., & Marston, S. (2018). Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World. PublicAffairs.

Dana, M. M. (2018). God, Improv, and the Art of Living, Eerdmans.

Reverend Marvin Chandler: Open to the Moment 

https://www.pbs.org/video/reverend-marvin-chandler-open-to-the-moment-cial78/

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

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

Special Needs

Special Needs Clinic, Tenwek Hospital, Bomet, Kenya

Friendship House at Western Theological  Seminary, Holland, Michigan

Much of my professional life has been devoted to prevention of death and disability.  It has been done from a western scientific model of medical care.  I have paid less attention to the care of the disabled.  It is difficult to move from our Western cure model to a healing model.

John Swinton’s book, Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship (Studies in Religion, Theology, and Disability  helps all of us embrace a deeper level of friendship with the disabled.  I was able to reflect on my experiences with this kind of care provided at Tenwek Hospital.  What I observed was a skillful and embracing care that doesn’t cure but in real ways brings healing to these children and their families.  This same dynamic is at work at the Friendship House at Western Seminary.. You can see for yourself in the videos from both of these organizations by clicking on the titles.

According to John Swinton, what is critical is our understanding of “time”.  He introduces us to a slower time that builds on the understanding of the ministry of presence and creates a community of belonging.   This kind of “time” is what we all need in our lives.  

We all have “special needs” as we consider our time together.

Marvin

References:

Friendship House, Western Seminary, Holland Michigan

https://www.westernsem.edu/welcome-friendship-house/

Swinton, J. (2018). Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship (Studies in Religion, Theology, and Disability. Baylor University Press.

Friends of Tenwek - Special Needs Clinic

friendsoftenwek.org/special-needs-clinic/

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

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/01/healing-presence.html

A Real Doc Martin

Martin Clunes as Doc Martin in TV Series

One of my favorite TV series is “Doc Martin”.  The fictional surgeon resides in an idyllic village on the coast of England.  He is brilliant but socially disabled and is required to engage with the realities of a peculiar community.  It is painfully honest and funny.

The memoir, Admissions, by Henry Marsh is a real narrative of the life of an English surgeon.  There was a resonance of his story with my experiences and some new insights.   What is resonant is his love of his vocation and the beauty he sees around him.  His “admissions” are delivered as a kind of public confessional.

An important insight of his surgical life is the critical importance of community.  Upon retirement he finds meaning by being trust into communities in Nepal and Ukraine.  Even though he is dislocated from his own culture, he finds and describes the beauty of these places.   It is a series of pilgrimages that he describes with upmost candor.  He returns to England in a better place than when he left.

Thanks for these lives and stories of healing.

Marvin

References

“Doc Martin” TV Series

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

Marsh, H. (2017). Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon (1 ed.). Thomas Dunne Books.

Hage, M. L. (2013). Rounds are Over!

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/09/rounds-are-over.html

Identity

We and our grandchildren are confronted by challenges of infotech.  It is no small concern.  A basic understanding of who we/they are is a good foundation for their responses

Doug Brouwer in his new book starts a conversation about identity.  It is a series of essays (letters) that explores his life with information garnered from multiple sources.    It is a good read and will be the subject of many family conversations.  

Our identity is a big idea.   If we have a digital identity it can be stolen.  If we have a narrative identity our stories can be misunderstood.  If we have a vocational identity we can retire.  We all have multiple descriptions of who we are and we look for  themes or summaries.  Where are the reliable sources or models?  

An underlying assumption of this blog is that we do have an identity as “healing agents”.  Our story is only reliable as we understand it within the context of a larger history and story.  The good news is that we have received the gift of that story/.  Doug Brouwer’s story is another part of that gift.

Marvin

References

Brouwer, D. J. (2018). The Truth About Who We Are: Letter to My Grandchildren. Resource Publications.

Downing, R. (2011). Biohealth: Beyond Medicalization: Imposing Health. Wipf & Stock Pub.

Harari, Y. N. (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (1st Edition ed.). Spiegel & Grau.

New Year Prescription

The usual rhetoric is “New Year Resolutions” but maybe a more realistic approach would be to “New Year Dreams” for 2019.  

What has been worrisome this past year is the disillusionment that seems to be epidemic in our lives.  In Wilmington, the shock and now malaise of Hurricane Florence is reality.  IDP’s (internally displaced people) are one of many realities.  There is FEMA, debris removal, replacement and repair but our world has been rocked.  This looks like the “new  abnormal” as described by Governor Jerry Brown of California. The joy we regularly share on the media is Schadenfreude - you don’t have to speak German to identify with this experience. 

I needed some therapy and here is what I found:

Renee Fleming and the New York Philharmonic New Year’s Eve Concert

Andrea & Matteo Bocelli - Fall on Me

Vijay Gupta - Street Symphony

Actually the new dreams found me in the beauty of music and story.  In a paradoxical way, our realities can produce our most beautiful dreams - a creative response that pushes all to a healing community.

Marvin

References:

Brown, Jerry “The new Abnormal”

https://theweek.com/speedreads/807164/gov-jerry-brown-says-massive-fires-are-new-abnormal-california

Smith, T. W. (2018). Schadenfreude: The Joy of Another’s Misfortune. Little, Brown Spark.

Renee Fleming and the New York Philharmonic New Years Eve Concert

https://www.pbs.org/video/new-york-philharmonic-new-years-eve-with-renee-fleming-ogvm7m/

Andrea & Matteo Bocelli, Fall on Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChcR2gKt5WM

Vijay Gupta - Street Symphony

https://www.pbs.org/video/street-symphony-1546641522/

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

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

"Living the Dream"

“But Christian hope is a matter of discipline more than simple self-expression. Hope is about learning to dream – provided one remembers that the dream comes not so much out of one’s own unconscious, but out of God’s. Hope is first learning God’s dream, and then living it.” Samuel Wells, Learning to Dream Again: Rediscovering the Heart of God

It is advent and a time for Christians to reflect on one of the great Transitions - God’s radical entrance into our world.  These big stories resonate with the smaller transitions of our own lives.  

For me this fall has been one of those transition times.  I decided to fully retire from the practice of medicine - the previous attempts were only “slow withdrawal” moves.  The timing was coincidental with an invitation to give a lecture to incoming obstetric and gynecologic resident applicants.  I decided to use that opportunity to share personal and professional highlights of the last 50+ years.   The title of that review was “My Exit Interview” and the conclusion was “An Awesome Adventure” - it should have been titled, “Living the Dream”!

The real question for me and the applicants is (that was not asked), “What’s next?”.   I found part of the answer in the book by Samuel Wells, Learning to Dream Again: Rediscovering the Heart of God.  It is book that was published after his tenure as Dean of Duke Chapel.  He collected his highlights and reviewed them in the context of Biblical stories.  It is a great advent read.

So the advent question is what does this “New Birth” mean in our lives?   It is a big question, but I think one answer is that it is an invitation to “Dream Again” much like those young applicants that patiently listened to my story.  The good news is that the invitation is not age dependent.

Wishing you a Christmas full of dreams,

Marvin

References:

Wells, Samuel. Learning to Dream Again: Rediscovering the Heart of God (p. 11). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition. 

Hage, M. L. (2012). Awaiting “Good News”

http://healingagents.blogspot.co.ke/2012/12/awaiting-good-news.html

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

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

Hage, M. L. (2013). Rounds are Over!

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/09/rounds-are-over.html