A series of essays....
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| RAFAEL CAMPO, ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE, POET, PHYSICIAN... HOW ART AND MEDICINE COMBINE TO GENTLE THE PAIN AND ENHANCE LIFE |
Courtesy of Harvard Magazine
....as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E Hughes
Two conversations within the past few weeks have sparked my consciousness and lifted my spirits. I am eternally grateful for not only better understanding how they tie in with one another so seamlessly but for showing me how brilliant life truly is and why I wouldn’t change our future possibilities for anything in the world!
Like many of us, TED Talks have become a part of our lives. They can range in subject matter anywhere from A to Z and fully encompass that space in between with people from all walks of life with so much to offer to any of us who try to make sense out of this crazy and complicated world. I have had several ‘aha moments’ while listening to a particular Ted Talk over the years and have written about my reactions to share with others in previous blog posts.
TEDxCambridge, an independently organized TED event, introduced me to Rafael Campo who teaches and practices medicine at Harvard Medical School. In addition, he serves as Poetry Section Editor for JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association and has authored nine acclaimed books.
He has received the Nicholas E. Davies Memorial Scholar Award from the American College of Physicians, for outstanding humanism in medicine. The New York Times Book Review says of his work, “Valuable and moving... he is undaunted by the ugliness of the physical deterioration apparent before his eyes, seeking always to capture the beauty of the human soul in struggle with physical reality.” And, I was attracted, not only by all of this brilliant information about this beautiful man, but by the title of his particular TED Talk: How Poetry Heals Us.
Having written poetry throughout the years alongside of my prose endeavors, poetry has been given a new life in my heart and soul since moving back up to Michigan a year ago. My good friend and proclaimed ‘sister,’ Marsha, has introduced the wonderful world of poetry in Kalamazoo to me in such a kind and poignant manner that it is becoming equally as important and comforting to me as any other work I've done over the past years.
Rafael Campo’s fourteen minutes of brilliance caught my attention and provided me with his thought and insight into the lives of people living with illness and feeling increasingly isolated and unheard. As a physician, he claims that doctors suffer from empathy erosion and burnout. He helps us to understand that, “When pain takes our breath away, poetry resuscitates us. Poetry sparks empathy and empathy is essential for our survival.”
Without the extraordinary power of our voices to bring us together, how can we heal? Poetry is enlightenment through ecstatic experience; allowing people to have periods of trancelike joy and the opportunity to experience great rapture and delight. He claims that silence can equal death and that, as many of us already know, music is poetry and can, perhaps, keep us alive by encouraging our memories to envelope us and spark new life through them.
His stories are moving journeys of AIDS, opioid addiction, and cancer and tell of when he, as a poet, began to focus on the healing and not just the curing as he often did as a physician alone. One of the first of his patients to strike a nerve while asking him to prescribe opioids for her as she proclaimed, “My soul hurts,” had been living with an abusive partner for years. He realized that nobody had been listening to her pleas for help, thinking only in terms of easing her physical pain. The day he reached out to her mental and soulful outcries was his own moment of awakening.
Stating that poetry will never take the place of penicillin, poetry can keep us alive and offers restorative powers. As a scientist and a poet, he now blends the two and teaches poetry to his medical students. “I am making them better doctors.”
Through the medical humanities, Rafael Campo has brought poetry to medicine and introduced poetry’s presence into the art of healing. When it is our turn to come to an understanding of our own health, “Each one of us can only hope and imagine that even if we are not restored to health then, at least, we are brought to life through humane poetry.”
Our imagination and poetic licenses are taking on a huge part of our everyday lives and proving to be a positive step towards living and dying gracefully...and with dignity.
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| GAVIN AND PAPA WORKING ON A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM |
I have always proclaimed that our grandson, Gavin, is truly what we might call an ‘Old Soul.’ He expresses knowledge beyond his eight-year-old experiences and uses words that are often proclaimed far beyond his age and capacity. This may be due, in fact, to his love of reading and explicit understanding of new words and expressions. In any case, I am, indeed, a huge fan of his and a very proud grandmother.
One afternoon, while we were sitting and talking with one another about his love for the book Charlotte’s Web written by E. B. White that he recently finished reading, he began looking at me with a rather inquisitive expression spreading across his handsome, little face. With Gavin, I could only imagine all manner of thoughts racing through his curious mind.
“Grandma, if we all came from the same place, then wouldn’t we all be connected to one another? Wouldn’t we all share the same ideas about living even though we speak different languages and our skin is different colors? I think we would.”
I was speechless for a moment as this ‘curious thought’ struck me deeply and personally. This profound expression of understanding about human connectedness expressed by one so young opened my eyes and heart to the positive possibilities of the future of mankind; a feeling I’d pushed aside given the political inadequacies of the current administration. Had this child looked far beyond our adult perception of ‘politics always rules’ and transgressed into the deepest ideas of common sense and human awareness?
Of course I explained to him just how correct he was on all counts as I sat beaming from ear to ear. He gets it! He truly gets it! Why on earth is it so difficult for others to understand connectedness, promoting racial tolerance, and instinctively knowing that our basic differences should not matter considering we all began our lives in the very same place. Right?
Rafael Campo and Gavin may have struck the perfect balance between how things truly are and how much better things can be given the opportunity of utilizing our imaginations and common sense. We still live in a world filled with a plethora of amazing ideas; a world where artistic endeavors shine over old, outdated doctrines and the sweet innocence of youth and the perception of what our world should be shines through young eyes like bright beacons leading us all into port on a stormy night.
I am indebted to Mr. Campo and to my grandson, Gavin, for their enlightenment. May we always remember to listen to the voices of reason that surround us. These are the voices that will motivate and complete us as we travel along this journey of life, love, and fulfillment.
Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
