Mind’s Dominion Over Body
Dualism © Joanna Kay, 2015 Plato conceived of the transcendental and the material. Descartes, of mind’s dominion over body. Captivated, I used to devour these texts. It is the Western birthright to be caught between these warring sects, to be enlightened. The crawling creature versus the brine from which it crept; the animal that raised it’s front paws and walked, stately, out of nature; the rogue cell that divided too rapidly for the system’s good, ending in fatal proliferation. Mind has thought it could bend Body to its will. It would Think Itself into oblivion if it...
Read MoreWhen Death Comes
When Death Comes When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility, and I think of each life as a flower, as...
Read MoreWild Geese
Wild Geese By Mary Oliver You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert repenting You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your...
Read MoreNational Suicide Prevention Week: An Open Letter to a Survivor
This week is the 2014 National Suicide Prevention Week. Suicide is a topic that has been hitting home lately, having experienced three brushes with suicide among friends and acquaintances this year, two of which were successful. Suicide is a difficult topic to talk about, because it spotlights what most of us try to run from — our mortality. For me, trying to fathom the literally unimaginable moment I cease to exist brings up something akin to horror. To then grapple with the startling truth that we each have the capacity (and occasionally the impulse) to deliberately launch ourselves into...
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