Because of danger, there’s a wonderful human response, which is to think in a new way. (The bold highlights are mine not the author’s.) The author is Gianna Pomata, a retired professor of the Institute of History of Medicine, at Johns Hopkins University. She is being interviewed by one Lawrence Wright for an article published in the July 20, 2020 New Yorker entitled CROSSROADS.
In this article Ms. Pomata recounts the history of how people lived (and died) with the bubonic plague that struck Europe in the fourteenth century. The plague commonly referred to as “The Black Death” really marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance she opined.
For a little more context I highlight a quote from the New Yorker article by Ms. Pomata. “The intellectual overthrow of the scholastic-medicine establishment in the Middle Ages was caused by doctors who set aside classical texts and gradually turned to empirical evidence.” “After the Black Death, nothing was the same,” Pomata said. ” What I expect now is something as dramatic is going to happen, not so much in medicine but in economy and culture.”
I lead off my monthly post calling attention to our current pandemic environment. Why? Because the negative daily Covid-19 low-lights affect my sense of balance. If you have been following these blogs you’ve read my attempts to highlight my journey to greater self awareness. You also know that I believe I have to practice and cultivate inner balance. In short, I need to focus less on my ego. I need to let go and trust my intuition more often. Well, the times we are living in are demanding new normal behaviors to help us navigate the perils presented to us by this corona virus. I am a firm believer that my inner peace has to be cocooned by an environment of outer peace. Outer peace? May be in outer space or ( wait a minute) nature?
Over my adult life I have (grudgingly) learned that my family and myself are healthier when we all act with open-minded empathetic compassion anchored by integrity in our daily lives. I attempt that balance first with myself followed by familial endeavors. Hopefully those actions are somewhat mirrored in our neighborhood and our community we live in. Naive to be sure, but I have to keep walking that path. If you have been following along you have correctly read me if you’re aware my personal journey has to be highlighted by unconditional love, even when wrong action and hurtful action is apparently in front of me. I do not ignore that negativity. I also do not magnify that negativity. But I discern it and call it out with truth, (most of the time.) Then I finish it all off with an act of forgiveness, (sometimes.)
A week ago I was pleasantly surprised when one of my step daughters gave me a present. A book entitled the Nature Fix. This month my current journals and blog notes summarize my search to empirically display in the written word how being outdoors affords me peace of mind and an opportunity to explore my inner feelings with greater ease. Intuitively I know this and I have always felt a peaceful warmth while canoeing in the Allagash, the Berkshires, Cape Cod. Hunting and fishing on Nantucket. Hiking around Nova Scotia, the Blue Ridge Mountains and Vermont. Camping with my young family in Western Maine, later with my two youngest children in the Berkshires. Fishing with them and also fishing everywhere, alone. My career for over 40 years was anything but peaceful. The administrative life of a health care professional. (My continued prayers to all of you caring for us in all the hospitals, nursing homes around the country and beyond!) But when my family could, we took off our shoes and felt the warm earth, our freed toes leading our dances of wonder and joy!
Along comes the Nature Fix, written by a Florence Williams. As it states on the jacket. (A) scientific tour de Mother Earth….The Nature Fix offers a cross- continental rumination on nature’s feel-good effects in a world that’s increasingly concrete-centric.”- PORTLAND MONTHLY
Ms. Williams starts this compilation of interviews and essays with a definition of health by the W.H.O.: “a complete state of physical. mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (Bold highlight mine, not the author’s.) In a chapter entitled Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, the following excerpt; As we waited for the others to gather in the lobby, Paul Atchley wondered aloud if the restorative benefits of nature might in fact spring from what’s not outside: the pings and dings of a wired life.” “Tech is leading us in a negative direction and nature may prevent that.”
I have not finished this book but it has already found a spot in my library. I recommend everyone read the Nature Fix. of course my ego likes this as it defines what I have always felt! (OK, now that was shallow.)
I end this month with this: Fear specifically is a consciousness that can attract disease. So I believe knowledge sheds light on my darkness of fear. Remember like attracts like. When I am unbalanced with too much fear that fear can emanate from me much as garlic can raise it’s presence through the pores of my skin. When the stench of negativity attracts like minded negativity, real power in that negative consciousness stream can be realized. The good news is positive energy will attract more positive energy. I believe, at this time, we are in the midst of re-balancing too much negativity. Our opportunity to build positive outlooks and positive consciousness is before us.
The more of us who walk with peace and joy, the more of us who will walk with peace and joy!
As you know this blog is framed by books, poetry and literature. Along with the Nature Fix I have acquired three novels written by Colson Whitehead. I have begun reading Zone One. Mr Whitehead finished this novel in 2011. It is about the aftermath of a pandemic. He writes with a marvelous gift of imagery more explicit, more colorful than most photographs. I won’t attempt to explain how Whitehead’s virus shreds the semblance of normalcy. in his novel. His story does parallel the divisions our world, country, cities and towns are experiencing now in our pandemic. His pandemic survivors attempt to build their walls. His survivors even hoard “toilet paper with malicious intent.” You might ask, “Why, Mark, would you want to read a story about a pandemic when all you have to do is look outside and watch the news?”
Why? May be I am impatient and I want to see how our pandemic might possibly end. I should finish Zone One in a few days, I am discerning our Covid pandemic won’t be finished with us by then.
Thank you for reading. Be in peace and joy and please VOTE!
Mark