HumaneMedicine

Lagniappe

261 Park Street  -- 2010/1/27 -- 9:20 pm

Shining Silent
Diana's bow bends bright
O'er Winter Study Class

As a quartet of a students left the last class, one upward gazed, then gasped --  we followed, star'd dumb and silent at this deep celestial eloquence: a Moon Ring.

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Patients: What Health Care Reform Forgot

by David Biro

All the interested parties [have been consulted] to help him find a solution to the health-care crisis: insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, lawyers.

But there was one notable absence: the patients, the group supposedly at the center of all these efforts. Wouldn't it make sense to solicit their input on improving the health-care system?

See full Op-Ed piece here: Download Biro Patients  .

Musée des Beaux Arts: Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Please study these two 14th century paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in preparation for class on January 20, 2010.

  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Census at Bethlehem, 1566

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landscape with Fall of Icarus, 1558

 

You might also like to listen to W. H. Auden reading his 1940 poem, Musée des Beaux Arts, here.

 

—Brian T. Maurer

 

One More Unfortunate

by Thomas Hood.

One more Unfortunate,     
  Weary of breath,     
Rashly importunate,     
  Gone to her death!     
 
Take her up tenderly,           
  Lift her with care;     
Fashion'd so slenderly     
  Young, and so fair!     
 
Look at her garments     
Clinging like cerements;     
Whilst the wave constantly     
  Drips from her clothing;     
Take her up instantly,     
  Loving, not loathing. 

Touch her not scornfully;
Think of her mournfully,     
  Gently and humanly;     
Not of the stains of her,     
All that remains of her     
  Now is pure womanly.

Full poem. 

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 Photo from Joanna Lipper's book, "Growing Up Fast" which reminds me of the woman in the "Bridge of Sighs."

Growing Up Fast

Growing Up Fast tells the life stories of six teen mothers from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a post-industrial city in Berkshire County that was until the late 1980's, a manufacturing base for the General Electric Company. It documents the lives of these teenagers, their families and members of the community, as they witness factory closings and the transformation of their hometown under the strain of economic and social upheaval and the influx of drugs. Often masked by statistics, demonized by the media, and stereotyped by people of all political persuasions, the voices, stories and photographs of these teen parents reveal the complex, disturbing, and often painful reality behind a vast array of social issues including welfare reform, low wages, drugs, domestic and dating violence and the prevalence of child abuse.

This is a brilliant book and a moving documentary.

The photo-gallery is haunting.  If you want to see these teen mothers, take a trip any day to the Berkshire Mall in Pittsfield. .

The River Merchant's Wife

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.

You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
      As far as Cho-fu-Sa.

Child Sexual Abuse

Not just in poor communities. 

Sandra Dee was one of the most popular Hollywood actresses in the late 1950's and early 1960s.  Her dark secret was the history of sexual abuse by her step-father which led to anorexia, alcoholism and depression.  She died at age 62 from complications of a life of anorexia and alcoholism, arguably the result of her abusive upbringing.

For an in-depth discussion about the long-term effects of child sexual abuse see: How Abused Children Become Unhealthy Adults by Anna Luise Kirkengen, M.D., Ph.D.

Here are a few more reference articles: Download Child Abuse PubMed.

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Plant Love

This session will be discussion with Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd on writing, literature and gardening.  Joe and Wayne are former teachers of literature who are now internationally renown landscape architects.  They have much to share about reading, great books and the restorative effects of a life in gardens.  They work and live in Readsboro, Vermont at the world famous North Hill Garden.  To learn more about them see Plant Love.

This will be an incredible class.

 

Tithonus

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Read and discussed by Shirley Li.

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.

Full Poem

About Tithonus, the poem.

Precious,

the movie is at  Images Cinema.

I am inviting all class members to the Tuesday, January 12th showing.  I will pay for everyone's ticket and give all who attend the showing a copy of the book, Push, by Sapphire on which the movie is based. 

This extraordinary film  addresses the topic of child abuse (sexual, physical and verbal), and while the movie is disturbing to watch it is an area we need to acknowledge and think about.  It is estimated that one-third of girls and one-fifth of boys have been the victims of a sexual assault, usually by a close relative.  Yet, the subject is rarely considered.  Precious courageously speaks to this issue.

Trailer.

If there is interest, Id like to make this a class function so that we can discuss the film together.  This will be an elective session; you are not required to attend.  Please let me know if you want to do this so that I can plan accordingly.