2.14.15 Valentine's Day, And Broadening The Cultural Concept of LOVE

     I like lots of holidays. I do. I enjoyed creating great decorations and baked goodies with my kids, when they were young. The excitement of leaving May Baskets, with cut wildflowers in nests of wet paper towels, and little cookies we made, in colored paper baskets we stapled together; the excitement of the kids sneaking around early, leaving them on doorknobs. But what pisses me off about Valentine's Day is the lingering exclusivity and stupid message about only ROMANTIC love being worthwhile. Oh, and, YOU only being worthwhile, if you are somehow engaged in it.
     It has become this, and wasn't always this, though we humans have a long long tradition of teachings that say stupid things like- if a couple is sitting around doing nothing, that is worthwhile; and if an individual is sitting around doing nothing, why that is pathetic.
     A sick attitude, probably related long ago to procreation and also to the doctrine of proliferating to make your religion as competitive as possible. Yet, look how this garbage becomes so internalized, in cultures.
     To me, love is love. Love of tiny buds and friends and lovers from youth and dear friends and memories and coyotes and gardens and beautiful creations. In there somewhere, sometimes, for some people and animals, is love of a partner. Which is a lovely, difficult, complex, gift of a thing. Something to be celebrated.
     But I get sick of people getting to have big big to-do's for getting married, but no big big to-do's for being happy or climbing a mountain or doing an amazing job at work or as a parent or as a friend or in the neighborhood. Or being in RECOVERY! Now, that warrants a huge celebration, every few years. It really truly does. Or living with a tough condition. Tough circumstances. Swimming, instead of sinking.
     So yeah, I like days of ritual. And I like rendering them in the direction of what makes sense to me.
     The media and Hallmark and now so many businesses spend gajillions of dollars working hard to brainwash us into buying things and believing things.
      Surely we can take harmfully-used words and profit-filled holidays and beliefs , and turn and weave them into something else.

None of these images in this post are mine.

Below the images is a brief history of The Heart, from BCE to 1998

 Everything you wanted to know about the heart and didn't remember to ask: Ah, history history.

"The heart symbol, the popular icon for the heart, can be traced to before the last Ice Age. Cro-Magnon hunters in Europe use the symbol in pictograms, though it remains a mystery exactly what meaning it held for them. The symbol will not become universal until the Middle Ages. 10,000-8,000 BCE

The Egyptians believe the heart, or the ieb, is the center of life and morality. Egyptian mythology states that after death, your heart is taken to the Hall of Maat, the goddess of justice. There your heart is weighed against the Feather of Maat. If your heart is lighter than the Feather, you join Osiris in the afterlife. If you fail the test on the scales, then the demon Ammut eats your heart, and your soul vanishes from existence. 2,500-1,000 BCE

Ancient Greeks hold the heart to be the center of the soul and the source of heat within the body. They also make some clever medical assertions. Scholars and physicians such as Hippocrates and Aristotle see the connection between the heart and lungs and seem to be aware of its pumping action. 400-200 BCE

The ancient Romans understand that the heart is the single most vital organ in sustaining life, as evidenced in the following quote from the Roman author, Ovid. "Although Aesculapius himself applies the herbs, by no means can he cure a wound of the heart." Aesculapius is the Greek deity of medicine and healing. 43 BCE-17 CE

Perhaps the most important of all classical physicians, Claudius Galenus, known as Galen, is the personal physician to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Though much of what Galen believes is incorrect (he fails to understand circulation, for example), he makes several important observations concerning the heart, including the description of valves and ventricles and the differences between veins and arteries.
130-200 CE

Early Americans recognize the importance of the heart. The Teotihuacan culture in ancient Mexico believes that every human being contains several different spiritual forces. Most of these may leave the body at certain times, such as when one is dreaming. However, the teyolia, the spiritual force that is associated with the heart, must remain within the body at all times, or the person will die. 100-900 CE

The image of the heart becomes very important in Christian theology. The Sacred Heart, which is usually seen emitting ethereal light and suffering from wounds, is seen as a symbol for Jesus Christ and his love. Devotion to the Sacred Heart reaches a high point in the Middle Ages, where it is seen in works of art and is mentioned constantly in prayers and doctrine. It remains an icon even today. 1,000-1,300 CE

During the Middle Ages, the methods of Galen and other ancient physicians are strictly followed, and there are no new medical advances concerning the heart. Culturally, the heart begins to grow in its meanings. The heart icon becomes a major symbol for medieval heraldry, where it is used to signify sincerity and clarity. In art and chivalric literature, the heart is increasingly seen as synonymous to the Holy Grail. In fact, early decks of playing cards even use the Grail instead of the heart symbol as an icon. 1,000-1400 CE

Scholars begin to question accepted views of the heart. Scholars and physicians such as Andreas Vesalius, the father of modern anatomy, and Michael Servitus make several key observations about the anatomy of the heart, while Leonardo da Vinci becomes the first artist to draw a truly accurate sketch of the organ. 1500-1600 CE

William Harvey publishes "An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals," which details for the first time the idea of circulation and how blood travels throughout the body, propelled by the pumping of the heart. The idea is a major breakthrough and will revolutionize the way the world thinks about the human body. 1628

A freak accident leaves the son of an English aristocrat with a gaping hole in his chest. This allows people actually to look inside his chest to observe the heart, and even reach in and touch it, if they so desire (King Charles I of England did). Several physicians examine the young man, including William Harvey. As unlikely as it seems, the young nobleman appears to have lived a perfectly healthy life despite the permanent wound. 1651

The Western cultural idea of the heart has taken on innumerable meanings. It is the center of all functions, feelings, and thoughts. It is the seat of the soul and the center of courage and intellect, the "Prince of all Bowels." Arguably, the heart is the single most important word in the human language referring to the mind and the body. 1700

Physicians attempt to operate on the heart, specifically on the pericardium. One of Napoleon's surgeons, the Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, performs the first such operation. Despite the successful surgery on the pericardium, the patient dies within a month. A few other physicians, such as Francisco Romero and Michael Skielderup, attempt similar operations. Most of the patients die. 1810-1820

The popular icon of the heart continues to be important in many cultures. In the Voodoo religion, the heart becomes the symbol of Erzulie, the loa of love, beauty, and purity. In Africa, the Asante people of Ghana develop Adinkra, the hand-embroidered cloth that represents social thought and Asante beliefs. The heart icon becomes a major Adinkra symbol, representing love and closely resembling the symbol for wisdom. 1750-1850

Simplacio Del Vecchio exhibits a dog with a sutured cardiac wound before the 11th International Medical Congress in Rome. Del Vecchio shows the Congress how the suturing is possible and proves that the heart is more resilient than previously believed. 1882

"A surgeon who tries to suture a heart wound deserves to lose the esteem of his colleagues," states leading German surgeon Theodor Billroth. 1883

Various surgeons attempt heart operations. Physicians such as Henry Dalton and Daniel Hale Williams successfully suture cardiac wounds, and though there is a 90% mortality rate throughout the period, innovators see these and other successful operations as hope for the future. The majority of the medical community disagrees. 1890’2

"Surgery of the heart has probably reached the limits set by Nature to all surgery. No method, no new discovery, can overcome the natural difficulties that attend a wound of the heart," believes English surgeon Stephen Paget. 1896

In an address to the American Surgical Association, Alexis Carrel discusses the innovative idea of shunt procedures between chambers of the heart. His experiments with animals are the precursor to the bypass operations of modern surgery, including the Blalock-Taussig shunt. 1910

Dr. Henry Soutter saves the life of a young girl with a successful heart operation. However, the medical community ridicules the procedure. Soutter is never able to repeat the operation. 1925

August 28: Dr. Robert Gross performs the first major operation on the vessels near the heart in an attempt to repair a defect in a young girl's pulmonary artery. This is the first operation of its kind, and it causes a sensation in the newspapers. Doctors around the world take notice. The era of modern cardiac surgery has begun. 1938

November 29: Alfred Blalock, Helen Taussig, and Vivien Thomas work together to save "blue babies," children with a fatal heart defect. The operation causes a sensation, and announces to the world that heart surgery has arrived as a viable option, not just a rare last resort. After the blue baby operation, the practice of cardiac surgery spreads like wildfire. 1944

The leap in modern medicine owes much to World War II. Doctors are forced to adapt and improve their methods under wartime conditions, and pioneer improvements in anesthesia, antibiotics, and blood transfusions. Several surgeons, such as Dwight Harken, attempt to operate on heart wounds, sometimes even successfully. These advances help pave the road towards modern cardiac surgery. 1939-1945

The publicity about heart disease is as prominent as that of AIDS today. Heart disease is revealed as the number one killer in the country, Presidents Harry Truman andDwight Eisenhower repeatedly speak out in favor of fundraising, February is named National Heart Month, and the American Heart Association is formed, all within a few years. 1950’s

Dr. Bill Bigelow experiments with lowering the patient's body temperature, thus slowing down all the vital organs. This provides a way for surgeons to get into the heart without the patient bleeding to death. A surgeon may have as long as ten minutes to operate before the patient begins to suffer from oxygen deprivation, whereas previously, the surgeon would have been lucky to have four minutes. 1950

September 2: At the University of Minneapolis Hospital, Dr. John Lewis, assisted by Dr. Walter Lillehei, performs the first successful open heart surgery. Using the hypothermic, lowered-body-temperature approach, they suture a hole in the heart of Jacqueline Johnson.1952

Doctors rush to develop a heart-lung machine, which will take over the vital functions of the body, hence allowing a surgeon an unlimited amount of time to operate. The first successful machine, built by John Gibbon in 1953, is bulky and unwieldy. Improvements continue to appear consistently after the 1950s. 1950's

Cardiac surgeons become the celebrities of the field. Several, such as Walter Lillehei and Henry Bahnson, live up to the "work hard and play hard" mentality. Denton Cooley becomes a legend in Texas before he is 35. Christiaan Barnard is seen dating such beautiful women as Sophia Loren. 1950’2 and 1960’s

December 3: In Cape Town, South Africa, Christiaan Barnard removes the healthy heart of a dead woman and transplants it into the chest of 55-year old man. The operation makes newspapers' front pages around the world, making a star out of Barnard. 1967

Pre-1970, the majority of heart transplants end in disaster because the patient's bodies reject the new organ. Thanks largely to the work of Dr. Norman Shumway, surgeons learn to minimize transplant rejection. A procedure is developed to monitor the process of heart rejection. A new drug, cyclosporin, prevents organ rejection without damaging the immune system. Soon, the only problem with heart transplants is that there are not enough donor hearts. 1970’s

Michael DeBakey implants a battery-powered heart. Though experiments had been performed since the mid-1950s and the nation watched several successes in the 80s, only DeBakey's success leads the world to think that artificial hearts are the way of the future.1998"

http://www.pbs.org/…/…/partners/breakthroughs/b_history.html

2.14.15 It Was All About Love: A Tiny House In Leverett

     I once had an acupressure office, behind a farm we were living on with friends, in Leverett. My office was a tiny house, out past the farmhouse and barns. By the cages and fenced in runabouts of our 8 rabbits, who sometimes got to run wild; surrounded by my herb garden and a herd of sheep. 

     A tiny house, four walls with windows, and a door , that had been situated elsewhere on the property, but that we all somehow cajoled and tugged and then pulled with tractor, upon lengths of trees, to the cement moorings. Then we replaced windows and door, refinished floor, and there it was. A small thing with broad windows, off in the field of sheep.

 Some clients would come early, and skinny dip in the tiny pond far at the edge of the field , where a Kingfisher nested, and beautiful water snakes slipped through the grass and away from you, as you entered the water. 

     When we first moved to the farm, we had a rabbit by the name of Gracia, who turned out to be a boy. He looked like a Dobie, and was an escape artist who knew no match.

     Time and again we would hunt him out, and return him to a newly patched cage, only for him to slowly chew through or push apart, and be gone, once again.

      I would put out food and water for him, fearing the worst. But come the first winter, there was his burrow, dug deep, back beneath a good smattering of protective brush. The kids and I would follow the telltale tracks from his new home, over round the barn, to the sheep, where he evidently nosed up to them, shared the spilled grains and hay, and then hopped over to the spring that flowed all year round, out of a pipe, and drank. 

     Sometimes you could see the tracks of a visiting cat, and the game the two had played, leaping about together in the snow. We realized then how happy he was, how he had always hated being touched, and how enormous his world had become; and full.

     Up past The Mount Toby Quaker Meeting House was another pond, with a family of Otters that slipped and slid down the mudded banks, into the water all day. 

     When a good thunderstorm came up, I would watch its approach as I worked on the client. They would miss a bathroom, but be awash with the experience of having their health and their body’s release attended to, out in a small house, in an endless field, beneath Mountains. Such silence and serenity, the clean wind off Mt. Toby, swept through the windows. 

 One client was a British woman in her eighties, a poet, and psychic. At the end of every session she would sit outside and ask to hold a bunny; and then hold the beautiful creature, and cry. Out of loneliness. As I sat by her, and we watched the grasses wave and shift, the trees over the pond and up into the forest dance about, lithe and with ease. 

Once she was driven to her appointment by her querulous, wealthy daughter, looking at me oddly for the whole session, listening carefully to my description of the problems I was attending to of disc and alignment and heart.

After, Iris asked for a rabbit, and I brought her Baxter, an enormous black and grey gentle boy, who I settled on her lap, only for him to immediately bite her. Oh! She cried out, but held tight to the beautiful boy, until I could take him in my arms, her daughter more disapproving than before, Iris getting up with her cane from my garden bench, telling me he probably was out of sorts today.

 The water we drank and bathed in was spring water, brought down, gravity fed, from a spring on Mt. Toby, by a system of pipes put in place by farmers 100 years before . Before them, the Native peoples had similar systems in place, such was the quality of the water.

 After seeing my clients, I'd gather my three kids, and the other kids living on the farm, and off we would hike, up up into the woods, with beguiling snacks in my backpack, our Aussi racing by my side, up to the spectacular waterfall, where everyone would be out of breath from the steep path, and walk about in the freezing water, splashing and laughing and playing games, as the hot summer sunlight filtered through the statuesque Oaks and Maples. All the kids seeing how close they could get to the secret places behind the falls.

The lot of them would then come sit on the broad rocks rising out of the earth ,and have their snacks, chattering and teasing and making outrageous kid plans, while I sat and nodded , pulling one into my lap to look at a scrape , or settled a spat, then lying back to gaze at the vast sea of moving branches far overhead, until finally we would all be laying back, wordlessly watching. 

Such was the world without television or so many machines. 
When we had spring rains , the streams would flood the ponds and the outwaters. We would get into canoes , the rain pouring down upon us, and we would slide through the waters covering where once we had walked, paddling all through places that usually were inaccessible . Past the Otter's pond and further up into the remarkable swampy areas, brimming with duck and goose and mosses and ferns and wild things.

The whole of life opened up , in those days.

                                                                                                                      T 2.14.15