Healing Hearing

Audiogram of Hearing Loss

Whoever has ears, let them hear. 

Matthew 11:15 (NIV)

We live in a highly visual world with technology that can deliver a steady stream of images.  If you have ever tried to produce a video story, you know that the audio track is critical in holding the images and story together.  It makes you realize the critical nature of hearing as it connects us into and with the lives of others.  

I also know about hearing loss and hearing aids.  I would love to tell you that these “aids” fix the underlying  pathology.  They don’t!   The healing of our “generic hearing loss” in our society must occur at an even deeper level closer to the pathology.

What seems endemic is a kind of “generic (not geriatric, presbycusis) hearing loss”.  It is not that there is lack of audio input.  It is something deeper in the processing of the signals.  It seems that there are so many inputs that it is impossible to hear those that are right in front of us.  This environmental cacophony blocks our hearing at the deepest level.

So what is the  prescription for this “hard of hearing”?  Here is my list:

1. Turn off or at least turn down the noise
2. Focus on the sound in front of you - don't talk to machines
3. Make a time/place for reflection on what you heard
4. Listen for the beauty 
5. Engage and act on your response 

My prayer, during this time of Lent, is that my deeper hearing will improve and may even be healed.

Marvin

References:

Brooks, A. C. (2019). Love Your Enemies. HarperCollins.

Hage, M.L (2014). Hearing Stories.

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

Hearing Link

https://www.hearinglink.org/your-hearing/implants/cochlear-implants/

Hage, M. L. (2017). The Beauty of Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-beauty-of-healing.html

Healing Scars

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

 (Caravaggio  1601-1602)

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)

At the end of last year in a series of essays in the Christian Century the authors shared stories of their scars.  One particular essay, caught my attention.  It was a narrative of cesarean deliveries.  It is a beautiful and painful story.

As a practicing obstetrician gynecologist, I created many scars, some seen and many unseen.  In addition, I taught others how to perform these procedures and systematically reviewed the outcomes.  These surgical acts were done realizing scars would result.  Simultaneously, we prayed for a healing result.  We understood the wisdom of our surgical predecessor, Ambroise Paré who wrote:

Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit ("I bandaged him and God healed him”)

I also have seen and evaluated many scars, some of my own making and many from others.  They all carry a physical story.  When I would see an abdominal scar that is broad, thick and indented, I knew that the scar went deep and has associated with a history of compromised healing.  Those scars required review of the surgical records and the patient’s experience.

So beside the biology of wound healing and scars, there are important narrative truths as demonstrated by the essays.  Confusion and uncertainty are frequent initial responses that only resolve with being able to tell and share scar stories.  For Christians, the story of Thomas and Jesus describes both the physical and spiritual reality of our scars and healing.   For me, the painting by Carravaggio tells that story.

Thanks be to God for healing all our wounds.

Marvin

References

Wikipedia:  The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (Caravaggio)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredulity_of_Saint_Thomas_(Caravaggio)

Scar: Essays by Readers. Christian Century 12/30/20

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/readers-write/scar-essays-readers

Wikipedia

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

Hage, M. L. (2016). The Healing Challenge.

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

All is Grace

 

“Celebrating the Gift of COVID-19 Vaccines” NIH

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, 

for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

My earliest introduction to pandemics was the death of a cousin (age 19) in 1949 from the severest forms of polio.   I was seven years old and still remember the great grief of his mother and the long lasting impact on our extended family.  Fear remained until vaccines were made available in the 1950’s.   Professionally and personally, I next learned about the HIV pandemic beginning in the 1980’s.  I was most concerned with the perinatal transmission of the disease.  It didn’t change until there was introduction of antivirals and their widespread distribution.  I saw glimpses of the H1N1 influenza, SARS and Ebola but these were more peripheral to my direct experience.

The Covid pandemic (like the HIV pandemic) has separated us more than social distancing,  “quarantine”, “being high risk” or even our political affiliation.  The pandemic experiences seem so varied.  The faces of the disease are still being identified.  So any proclamation on the meaning of it all requires very careful engagement and the assistance of others.

The first task, it seems to me, is having a clear memory of what was before.  It is a history that is forgotten or ignored.  It is not just about the “wins”.   Life lessons are made out of losses as well as wins.  What makes it livable are the presence of others - for me,  communities of faith and healing. The memory must always include those who engaged and shared the suffering as well as the healing.

The second task is to be clear about the outcomes.  This is about the prognosis and not the diagnosis.  It comes in knowledge from clinical trials and careful listening.  It is what gives us hope as well as frightens us.  It is where uncertainty looks for guidance from those who have lived through other traumas.  These guides are our docents who know and share their knowledge with us.

Lastly, I look for the character of the responders and the responses.  Who are the heroes?  What disciplines have they learned?  What environments have been places of creativity?  What are the stories of pandemics that we have learned, ignored or forgotten?   We have been given great gifts in the knowledge that has been shared with us.  Their knowledge has been shared by the grace of their words and understanding.  And now we have the gift of vaccines.

Thanks be to God for being with us all in our pandemics and our current Continuing Pandemic Education.

Marvin

References:

Collins, F. (2020) Celebrating the Gift of COVID-19 Vaccines 

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/12/22/celebrating-the-gift-of-covid-19-vaccines/

Hage, M. (2008) STDs and NC State Law – A Provider / Public Health Partnership 

Hage, M. L. (2012). Healing Communities - “For the Greater Glory of God”.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/11/healing-communities-for-greater-glory.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). God’s Grace.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/10/gods-grace.html

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

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/10/healing-ebola.html

Jones, S. (2019). Call it grace : finding meaning in a fractured world. New York: Viking.

Brueggemann, W. (2020). Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

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

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/06/healing-faith.html

Healing Ends

 

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

Traditional German carol, pub.1599

Personal Photo December 13, 2020

Asking hard questions seems to characterize the advent season this year.

“Are we there yet?” Is a common memory from the backseats of family trips.  It painfully recurs in the prayers of advent and now within the tragic context of a pandemic.  We desperately look for times and events that signal an “end”!  The vaccine distribution is one answer to those prayers but the “end of the pandemic” is still remote for most of us.

 

There is another related advent question,  “Will we receive  the gift?”  This question now finds its parallel in the issue of vaccination acceptance.   The underlying issue to any acceptance is “trust” in others and and their work.  Even those on the “science side” of this question know about the uncertainty of results.  

So during this time of prolonged waiting and questioning in this world, I find again that healing is not an event.   It is not the “hard stop” of vaccination, but a process of living with uncertainty in all its forms.  It comes in small bits of understanding and acceptance.  It even comes in the midst of a winter of grieving.

At this time of advent may we all remember and receive the blessings that surprise us like a rose blooming in the middle of winter.

Marvin

References

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming Carol

https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Lo_How_a_Rose_Eer_Blooming/

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

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

Hage, M. L. (2018). Living the Dream.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2018/12/living-dream.html

Reading Together

And if we learn from this moment to be better together, 

we won’t just endure this crisis. We will thrive. 

Vivek Murthy, March 2020

"Keep close. You can't understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. 

You have to get close."

Bryan Stevenson’s grandmother in “Just Mercy”

In the past, I read predominantly in the growing mountain of professional literature.  It required close attention to and knowledge of the material.   It was focused reading to bring the best and newest evidence to the pressing questions of diagnosis and prescription.  In my lifetime, this became facilitated by powerful computer searching tools and electronic media.

Now, my reading is frequently recommended by others and requires reading as a basis of the conversation that follows.  The communication is about the many ways the same story/information is understood and applied.  

Here is one example from my church community.  We began using the narrative lectionary that organizes how specific stories meet the larger narratives in the Bible.  This is a four year curriculum of directed faith community reading.  It has been a wonderful gift to see how the narrative connects to our individual lives and encourages all of us to struggle together.

An example was joining another community and reading “Just Mercy” together.  This was a broader group that we were able to have conversations around the many stories reported by Bryan Stevenson.  These reflective times allowed me to form relationships and learn together even at a distance.

Thanks for communities that practice reading together.

Marvin

References: 

Sharma, D.  Reading and Technology Reading And Technology In 2020: Why Writers Are Bypassing Bookstores To Find Fans And Community? 

http://www.businessworld.in/article/Reading-and-Technology-in-2020-Why-writers-are-bypassing-bookstores-to-find-fans-and-community-/07-10-2020-328864/

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.

Narrative Lectionary

https://www.workingpreacher.org/home-narrative-lectionary

Stevenson, B. (2014). Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption (First edition. ed.). New York: Spiegel & Grau.

Hage, M. L. (2018). Healing Together.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2018/01/

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

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

Public & Personal Healing

Dr. Özlem Türeci and Dr. Uğur Şahin

 Covid Virus Pandemic Map - November 13, 2020

On Monday, November 9, 2020, there was a very big announcement that gave the world a sense of hope - the first results from a unique vaccine trial..  The back story of the “dream science couple” vaccine researchers is inspiring as we heard about the long personal preparation for their rapid innovative response to the pandemic.  This is an immigrant story from Germany.

Earlier this month, we were informed about individual response differences to the disease. - how our individual genetic codes the responses to the virus infection. We are beginning to identify specific individual risks to the Covid virus. 

The bad news is that the pandemic is reaching new records of cases and deaths.  There is a race to approve, produce, and distribute limited amounts of vaccines.  The efforts by teams around the world will continue to search for our best responses - public and personal.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story,

Marvin

References

Herper, M.  Statnews

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-and-biontech-is-strongly-effective-early-data-from-large-trial-indicate/

Oltermann, P The Guardian

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/ugur-sahin-and-ozlem-tureci-german-dream-team-behind-vaccine

Meffre, E. Iwasaki A.  Interferon deficiency can lead to severe COVID

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03070-1

Coronavirus Outbreak

https://www.bloomberg.com/coronavirus?sref=tT4nCvWQ

Hage, M. L. (2020). M & M - “Who’s Presenting?”.

https://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/03/m-m-whos-presenting.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR2k95e9LN4lldPtQSH6XcxrP6zHa1k36bzFPyw8iDmZ2Uq_z7SMArn7pCw

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

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/06/healing-faith.html

Hage, M. L. (2016). Invited.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/01/invited.html

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