Читать книгу Close to the Bone - Jean Shinoda Bolen - Страница 13

When something is wrong with our bodies, we want whatever is wrong to be fixed. When something destructive is going on in our bodies, we want the disease to be stopped. We go to doctors and to hospitals with the expectation that they will take care of our bodies. That the soul might also be engaged is not our expectation. Yet, a life-threatening illness calls to the soul, taps into spiritual resources, and can be an initiation into the soul realm for the patient and for anyone else who is touched by the mystery that accompanies the possibility of death. When life is lived at the edge—in the border realm between life and death—it is a liminal time and place. Liminal comes from the Latin word for “threshold.” It is not an everyday word; it is one whose meaning I want to evoke out of the remembered experience of the reader and the collective memory of the human race, which we all have access to. Whenever we participate in something that will change us, and change how others relate to us—as when we marry, are inducted into the armed forces, or are ordained, become a doctor, or survive an ordeal— that experience is a liminal one. Whenever we are initiated into knowing something we did not know before on a body level—for example, through sexual intercourse or pregnancy—we cross a threshold. Here the mystical, spiritual, or psychic awareness of what is happening, however, determines its significance as a soul experience. So it is with a life-threatening illness, which similarly happens in and to the body and yet can profoundly affect the soul.

Illness, especially when death is a possibility, makes us acutely aware of how precious life is and how precious a particular life is. Priorities shift. We may see the truth of what matters, who matters, and what we have been doing with our lives and have to decide what to do—now that we know. Significant relationships are tested and either come through strengthened or fail. Pain and fear bring us to our knees in prayer. Our spiritual and religious convictions or the lack of them are called into question. Illness is an ordeal for both body and soul and a time when healing of either or both can result.

Once upon a time, or so it seemed, potentially fatal illnesses were unexpected tragic events that happened to young children, and terminal illnesses were mostly chronic conditions that afflicted the elderly. Diagnostic tests and biopsies have made it possible to diagnose life-threatening illnesses earlier and treat them aggressively; so much so that invasive treatments can be health and life endangering themselves. Midlife now presents the possibility of death and disability for far too many people. Not just cancer, but also diseases that affect the health of body and mind strike people in their prime adult years. There are times when midlife can feel like a medical war zone, with people dropping around us; for those of us in the health professions the impact of numbers is even greater. Life-threatening and life-changing illnesses are striking close to home. One may be threatening your spouse, your lover, your son or your daughter, your parent, your friend, or you.

To be a passive, obedient patient or, the terrain on which a battle is fought by the medical profession, goes against the grain of people who question authority, see value in alternative viewpoints, and understand that body and psyche are related. Whether as patient or as a person with love and responsibility for the patient, there are life-and-death consequences to the choices we make or allow others to make. To act out of fear or out of trust, to go with intuition or against it, to do what we know is right for us when it upsets someone else—issues that are life issues are made all the more crucial when death or recovery may depend upon what we decide. Moreover, if the battle for a medical cure is lost, doctors often abandon the field, all but avoiding the patient, who is now a reminder of defeat.