Conflating Literature and Medicine: Superhuman Doctors

This is an ever expanding list on how an interdisciplinary approach to medicine is not only awesome but necessary and paves way for a more humane practice. This is also a protest to my school Biology class where the ethos of science and art being enemies to each other, art the more irrational sibling is debunked.

Lies

Medicine and Literature - Two Treatments of the Human Condition

Prescribed Reading: Why Medicine is Good Training for Writing Fiction

Literature About Medicine May Be All That Can Save Us

How Two Pakistani American Doctors Introduced the World To Mughal Superheroes

Truth

The Freak

Weed occurs in soil

Weird people stem from society

Weed is found nature

But weird people are seen as the anomaly

The freak

Both are rooted out

Overcooked

It is hard finding the tenderness
On an overcooked day such as this

I do not have the teeth to bear
The crisp, crunch, crackle caused by all the heat

And I realize  
A lack of appetite for the living
Might be the only way to survive















Image: Scarlet Gloves, Cathy Hegman
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/434456695279308816/

Meaning

Sun now lamp
Healer now bandaid
Pheromone now fart

I mean less to you now

Sustenance now side-dish
Lightning now glitch
Holy book now sticky note

I don't mean much

Meaning this means nothing to you now
Meaning there is no meaning in trying to find out the meaning of this now
Meaning you find no meaning in increasing your attempts to find meaning in me now

Meaning you're basically gone forever now

I've poured over dictionaries
Book tombs
Youtube videos
My skin
Prayer books and mats

To figure out why
But it is still you who has to answer

art by Terri Higgins - The Silence Held All The Despair
http://www.absolutearts.com/painting_oil/terri_higgins-the_silence_held_all_the_despair-1408579184.html

Cope With Me

You carry your corpse amidst the sensory cacaphony to the place (school), you think will one day some day take you to the utopia that twerks inisde your head. You crack dull grins, among your colleagues passing along the way. Anything to stop people from asking why oh why you still walk with a skyscraper back . Some still notice and you tell them it's nothing. It really IS nothing but its just that day, today when those quote wallpapers on your phone have become hackneyed and do not stir you. You isolate yourself and yank out your phone still to maybe find something that numbs.


1.The sad ghost club:

You're on Facebook and you stumble across this Mighty article to find the sad ghost club. You check for a website and it reads

IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN SAD, THEN YOU’RE ALREADY A MEMBER.

You're excited. You would highfive God right now if you could. You also wish you could thanks Laura and Lize for creating the club.

WE'RE A SMALL CREATIVE PROJECT MAKING COMIC BOOKS, APPAREL AND MERCHANDISE TO SPREAD POSITIVE AWARENESS OF MENTAL HEALTH. 

Then you browse the comics on their facebook page.

You feel understood, loved, cradled, warm. Like somebody actually listened and didn't force feed you optimism and scold you for not opening your mouth.

Plus they ship cute tees and beanies.

Score.

2.Shane Koyczan 

You're pity party isn't over yet. Their is something trumpeting against your chest asking for more sustenance

Shane. 

You've watched his spoken word poetry on youtube before and you know this is the right moment to watch more videos.

Here's why Shane is cool:

Shane L. Koyczan is a Canadian spoken word poet, writer, and member of the group Tons of Fun University known for writing about issues like bullying, cancer, death, and eating disorders. He is most famous for the anti-bullying poem To This Day which has over 18 million views.^[1]

3. The School of Life

You feel like you've almost diagnosed your dilemma for the day. Now you need concrete steps for making a smart plan.

But because you're not yet ready to quit the internet it's time to browse youtube some more.

You are almost worried you'll end up wasting time and watching something else other than what could help you but then you search for a "How to become a better person"video on youtube and stumble upon a cool channel called "The School  of Life."

A Google search later proves that as per the school of life website:

The School of Life is a place to step back and think intelligently about central emotional concerns. You will never be cornered by dogma, but we will direct you towards a variety of ideas from the humanities - from philosophy to literature, psychology to the visual arts – ideas that will exercise, stimulate and expand your mind. 

You've found your online adult (Thanks Alaine De Botton for starting this project). Somebody who takes you through various ideas and helps you make a decision as opposed to being thrusted an order.

You throw away your phone and march towards a group of people.

You can deal with today.

Chug

Chug
Chug
Chug

How much of this is something I will be able to drink in
Before vomiting out
To let it sink in
Before putting my bottle down

Gasping for air and blinking
Deserved embarassment for the mess I'll make
Realizing it was a mistake to
Chug
Chug
Chug

My gluttony may just be the death of me

Please teach me to sip
To gargle it out
And please teach me to pull out the drain
Before I become a sinking ship
And drown

This bench

This bench 

Like its brothers has never discriminated

From derriere to derriere or bag from bag

It has stood firm

It's concrete base

Weathering dust storms and rain and trash and crow bajsas

It has united and can seat

4 large children

5 uncomfortably ,squeezed moderately chubby teenagers or

6 tiny first graders

Headquarters for 

Girls gossiping 

Boys horsing around

Cliques occupying territory

Love birds courting

Never deceiving, 

It tells you when there are too many seated 

Yet it is kind

And its brothers sit at its shoulder's sides 

Like outstretched hands 

And if you kneel a little 

You could sit between two groups

 This rather unloved bench

Nobody to cool it down on summers

When it can't bear the weight of sunlight anymore

Nobody to keep it warm in winters

When it can't bear the weightlessness of the chill

Rather unloved

Nobody takes selfies with it on their farewells

Nobody tags it on their timelines for all the good days 

Or the bad days

 Or just days where

You've seen me glorious

You've seen me grotesque

Under-loved or rather unloved

Nobody calls you bae or bae-nch or seatie

Even though it's always been our before anyone else's on days

Where we couldn't support ourselves

Wise

It's seen my ancestors

And my descendants

And this soil we still call home

Yet you still sit silently
Waiting for us to come home already