Atypical Art

Medicine Now
Inspired by medicine and medicinal investigations





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Living with medicine



My own photos of the day ................

A free destinaton for the incurably curious

An interesting day. Signed off sick for 2 weeks which I feel absolutely dreadful about in terms of guilt with my work place and colleagues. But relief too. I do not feel able to work right now.
And a day trip to London with AB. A delightful day of curiosities.
Finally, after all these years of thinking about going, I have visited the Wellcome Foundation. And truly what a collection of curiosities, paintings and objects Mr Henry Wellcome collected.
I adored a collection of photos that were absolutely charming not only for their capture of people from lands far away (at that time), but also for their incredible photographic clarity and quality after all these years


Henry Wellcome was a collector. Quoted from the Wellcone leaflet - "entrepreneur, philanthropist, patron of science and pioneer of aerial photography. He also created the world's great museum: a vast stockpile of evidence about our universal interest in health and the body"
And what a stockpile it was - oddities from all corners of the world. Oh and the only etching van Gogh ever did, encouraged by his doctor Dr Gatchet
 This is not the etching of course.
 But this is.

I wish I could find copies of the photographs. They were truly delightful and incredible all at the same time. But anyway here are a few of the things we saw today in his part of the museum ...



       
oh rather than put all these on - see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/astropop/sets/72157607489294155/
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/medicine-man/image-galleries-1.aspx

There were some really extraordinary items. So interesting and mind opening. Sometimes I am so oblivious to all that has gone before us. And also the cultural differences.
I was struck by the number of sexually explicit items from Japan and China. They were items that promoted pleasure and experiment in sex. Then we discovered the European items - chastity was the sentiment. Various chastity belts and penis rigs that would halt masturbation in a very very painful manner. Surprisingly these items were from Netherlands, Germany and Britain!!!!! No wonder there is such a sense of guilt and shame. Embrace the beauty from the Orient, where the body and sexuality is revered.

It's late. I am going to sleep. To be continued ....
Bliss
XX

So to continue......

The galleries are arranged:
Beginning of life
Understanding the Body
Treating yourself
Seeking help
End of life













This is one of the wonderful photos .....
Alfred Duggan-Cronin went to Kimberly, South Africa in 1897 to take up a position with De Beers Consolidated Mines. He observed the different tribes working on the mines and began to build up a photographic record. After World War I Duggan-Cronin returned to South Africa. Supported by government and Carnegie grants, he spent the next 25 years exploring and photographing the many tribal areas and customs. Duggan-Cronin was fascinated by black South African culture and the drastic changes he saw occurring under Westernisation. He built up an amazing photographic record of approximately 6000 images, documenting many of the groups of black South Africans.

Chongwe River House Tales

Another place that would have been great to travel to with JH. I hope someday to meet someone who would wish to share adventures with me.

http://www.chongweriverhouse.com/index.php

http://janekeogh.wordpress.com/

Fascinating reading and inspiring too ...



  Giant burrowing cockroach

 Solifugaes

 Mozambique spitting Cobra

 Red and black walking frog

Rather exposed due to the bivouac

Well, discussions with ET and ML today. I felt rather frustrated talking with ET as she seemed to use her examples of herself in direct opposition to things I was saying about me. I know she finds it difficult when I am not feeling so great. She said I think that she expects me to be well all the time, just as she would her family. And in recent weeks I have not been and so she has seemed very angry, at times ignoring me, or very short with me. We had spoken about this some a couple of weeks ago I think it was now. I had commented that I sensed something was wrong and asked if we could talk about it. It took her a while.
I think today was more of the same. She is feeling low and seemed quite impatient with me not being upbeat and full of support.
I think her talking was a way of trying to make me see that I am OK. I don't really know but it felt like I wasn't being heard for me. Then she shifted so perhaps she recognised something. Or maybe I stopped talking or maybe I was less resistnat to what she was suggesting. Anyway something shifted between us and it was OK - not great but OK. I feel quite intolerant of this right now.

I am thinking of allowing my GP to sign me off just as he had suggested. But I feel so guilty and will let down clients..... perhaps I could go back Mon and Tues and then allow him to sign me off??

Well now I think I will stroll off to the woods.3rd walk of the day, 2 short ones and now I fancy a longer one amongst the trees.

Oh the bivouac. ML used that word and talked about it being exposed camping. What she didn't say is that it's a term specifically associated with the military.She makes me smile. She wants so much to improve and develop herself and puts in the effort. She has a word of the day from dictionary.com and attempts to use it. This will certainly assist her creative writing. I am inspired by people who put effort in growth in whichever direction that might follow. And all paths lead to Rome apparently.

Isle of Wight

Home sweet myth

It's better to know the glory and ecstasy of defeat and victory than live forever in the twilight of never having felt either one ... (Theodore Roosevelt)


The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)


I haven't found the context within which these statements were actually being made. And although I have encountered Csikszentmihalyi during my psychology studies I had forgotten his major theory. I have looked it up again though - flow - positive psychology. Depression or anxiety in his view are states that block flow, which is related to happiness.
Clear goal/s
Concentration and focus on goal/s
Distorted sense of time
Balance between ability and challenge
A sense of personal control
Activity is intrisically rewarding
Lack of awareness of bodily needs (can get quite hungry or tired without realising)
Absorption into activity
Apparently not all are needed to achieve flow .....

   Balance!!!!
Intresting actually as somewhere in here I could fit in Vygotsky's theories of Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding - i.e the value of good teaching to help cross the pain barriers of too much demand and how this works to increase one's potential. BUt there is also value in Piaget's theories, that people need time to develop alone as well. Self satisfaction. But knowing when to reach out for help is vital, otherwise there is surely a possibility of being too self centred or focused and getting stuck. Each persons ZPD is different. And the interesting thing is why? When most brains are the same size, weight and have similar structures. What is it that will make one persons ZPD vaster than anothers? I love these questions and the theories which still are mainly unproven. I would encourage anyone to be able to go outside of themselves and be humble enough to think that the teacher is always someone else. To remain teachable is humble and gives room for ever growing. I pray that I might be able to take this on board.

I am missing being with RF and the family. I do not feel content with the way things are in my life right now.
Things I want to change - the length of my journey to work, the company I work for or at least the conditions under which I work, loneliness, living location. These things all seem wrong for me right now and bring a gloominess over the things that I really enjoy. Oh and being overweight. Now that contributes to a distraction and also I do not want to go out so much. So being overweight actually reinforces my dislike of myself. And then I don't get out and about as much so augmenting the feeling of isolation and loneliness and dissatisfaction. Vicious cycle when all the components are added in.

What I do like and love and am passionate about
- my studies this year
- my friends
- art
- visits to London
- visits with friends
- LouLou
- writing
- exploring
- information at my finger tips
- films that inspire me in some way or other


Anyway back to Csikszentmihalyi. I somewhat agree with him on different levels. There are some challenges that are so engrossing. Finding out new information and researching certainly completely challenge me but also grab my focus. And I get such a sense of achievement and pleasure, especially if there is a way to share the discoveries and develop the ideas. It's the same with sketching. I can be completely engrossed for as long as it takes to complete it. I am not very patient though at times and tell myself "I can't do it" and then of course I can't. It's funny though - some things I truly love I will persevere and other things I will give up so easily on. I do have this perfectionist streak in me which is dibilitating. I continue to learn how to be acceptant without letting that become a de-motivator. There is a fine balance. And keeping half an eye on it is helpful. I can be very lazy too. An image of sloth comes to mind and how inattractive that is - then I lose self esteem again. Back onto the vicious cycle. My mum used to say I was a 5 minute wander. By that I always took it as a negative view from her. But actually I can look at this differently and see how I can be interested and inspired by so many things. There is a diverse world and I am curious about so much of it. The more I know the ore I realise I don't know and so the more there is to discover and participate and explore. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Csikszentmihalyi once said "Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason."  

Ah that terrible phenomena of fear. Fear has it's uses. It's a human emotion and very useful in the right place and time or situation. The difficulty is that the way fear is interpreted through generations can misappropriate fear onto things just beyond our feeling of control.  And yes then it can keep the world and life ecperiences very small. I have bee fortunate to have had a sort of blind courage for many years and therefore have had a wealth of experiences. I do think I took courage using tools that gradually became unhealthy. However, they served a purpose and usefully I think until there were unhealthy consequences. So having removed them to the best of my ability, I now need to rediscover faith and courage more fully. And then I am at at my most most content - experiencing and change and adventure. Now thought I have a growing awareness of feelings. And trying to accommodate the range of feelings whilst embracing courage and faith - well it's a new turn in life. I am more conscious and so the experiences are more emotive? Maybe. Or maybe something else is occurring. Difficult to really know. I do not like a small world though.
I like of course the reference to the bounds of reason - decency, morals, spiritual practices. Now when I write that I wonder if people think spiritual practices simply refer to meditation or routine and structure, or prayer etc. When I write it I do mean principles. Step Three always reminds me that I seek to do things the way God would wish of me and God is within me. When I feel most at one with myself and God is when I behave in line with my principles.
I was thinking about the stealing of stuff off the Internet - films and music. It satisfies my want for things but it sits uncomfortably on my conscience. It is so important to be aware of conscience. BUT I think conscience can create fear as well. I can think too deeply about the impact or effect on others or the world and it will stop me from doing things that are not against my principles. Amazing how it has all become muddled up over the years. And the starting point is the beliefs, principles, etc that were taught in the first years of my life - parents, schools, peers. A big influence that gets stuck there right or wrong. For some they can go off on their journey and change these early lessons for others the lessons are stuck hard and fast and actually influence the choices instead of the influences of life being able to challenge the "rules".
Interesting thoughts - would be interesting to have a discussion about these things. And to remain open to others experiences and musings - stay open to this theory not being finite. But one aspect of being human that is so multi-layered and multi-sided, that there is room for everything and anything. And it is OK. Of course some people are more compatible with other and some people are not.
Brings me back to wanting to be able to share my time with compatible people but to continue to encounter other aspects and perspectives to keep the growth and diversity. I hope to develop this openness.
Openness as opposed to transparency which I also hope to continue to develop.

Right off to study now
Bliss
XX

p.s. with this in mind - sorry to harp on about him, I have learnt from JH and all of the experiences together. And on days when I am not self-obsessed, I can see all positivity from everything and not be blaming at all.
Right now I am unable to put this into words. It will come.