Corpus - conversations about medicine and life

On the frankincense trail

23 July 2018 4 Comments

Sandra Arnold

Five thousand years ago Oman was the centre of the world’s frankincense trade. Frankincense was traditionally burned at funerals and to repel malaria-bearing mosquitoes in the coastal regions. Other uses included the treatment of wounds, nausea, blood pressure, fever and inflammation. It was in great demand by the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Israelites for their religious ceremonies. A whole year’s supply was burned at the funeral of Nero’s wife. As one of the gifts to the Christ child, frankincense was considered more valuable than gold. To transport frankincense across the desert, camels were domesticated in southern Arabia. At least one of the Magi is said to have started his journey to Bethlehem from southern Oman.

The Frankincense Souk in Salalah is reputed to be the best place to buy frankincense in the whole of Arabia. The Souk was our first stop on the frankincense trail when we lived in Oman in 2004. White smoke spiralled from little clay burners on the stalls of the Souk, mingling with the scent of jasmine and sandalwood. I was transported in a second to The Arabian Nights of my childhood imagination.

The history of loneliness

23 July 2018 4 Comments

Barbara Brookes

When I saw a book entitled A History of Loneliness I immediately had to buy it – imagining the way social interaction had changed over time might be revealed to me. It was, of course, Irish author John Boyne’s novel, a sensitive and compelling exploration of Irish priesthood that enlarged my understanding.

I have thought about loneliness most often in relation to the history of early women doctors. The Alexander Turnbull Library holds a wonderful collection of letters of women who trained in medicine in Edinburgh in the 1890s. The letters were carefully preserved by Dr Agnes Bennett who practiced in Wellington from 1905 until 1936, with interruption for distinguished service in the first world war. Those letters led me to write about the ‘corresponding community’ the women created in order to continue the companionship they had so enjoyed at the Edinburgh Medical College for Women. The letters enabled them to maintain the sorority they had established as they embarked on their often lonely careers. Early women doctors were often exiles from the communities in which they were raised and from those in which they ended up practicing. Their male colleagues rarely welcomed them and as single women they were treated by suspicion by the wives of male colleagues.

Unity music

16 July 2018 1 Comment

Alison Denham

Eric Dozier, supreme musician and cultural activist, is a force to be reckoned with. His singing workshop in the southern New Zealand city of Dunedin over the weekend 12-15 July will be treasured for ever by Dunedin Community choir members and leaders, and those who came simply because they love to sing.

All of us – soaring sopranos, edgy altos, bluesy tenors and down and dirty bases – experienced such elation, and also intense moments of sadness, through the music and through the stories and teachings of this man.

Raised in a little town called Bakewell in Tennessee, Eric Dozier was immersed in gospel music through his family life, playing the piano in his local church at the age of five. Many of his extended family members and cousins sang, and the stories behind those songs are in his bones. Eric became involved in a programme helping young people to express themselves through music and drama. Following that, he became active in Unity Youth Choir, believing absolutely in music’s ability to unite the people of the world, one song at a time.

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Does yoga support social justice for women?

16 July 2018 1 Comment

Nicola Wilson-Jones

The popularity of yoga has blossomed since Swami Vivekananda introduced its philosophy to the West in the late 19th century. Western women have led the charge toward mainstreaming the practice of yoga, women making up, on average, 80–90% of most yoga classes. It is very rare to observe more than fifty percent men attending. In India, however, the opposite situation prevails. As Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi say in their 2015 book Super Genes: The Hidden Key to Total Well-being:

Ironically, the practice is taken up mostly by men in India and mostly by women in this country [USA]. In India, the pursuit of higher consciousness is open to everyone in theory, but in practice women have been excluded.”

Because women in the West support yoga as an industry, it is worth asking if yoga’s ideology supports and enables women. Does yoga culture reinforce the objectivisation of women? Does it entrench an expectation that women be primarily maternal beings? Are we advocating for the empowerment of women who live and work in the Indian ashrams and temples? Do we gain purchase from our victim status, or do we choose to be self-determined, self-articulated and self-governed? Ahimsa (to do no harm) is one of the cornerstones of yoga, but are we inadvertently supporting violence against women? [Read more…] about Does yoga support social justice for women?

A little book with big feathers: “Poems for a World Gone to Sh*t”

16 July 2018 Leave a Comment

Sue Wootton

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul – ” Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

I was browsing in the bookshop, and a book flew into my hands. It was called Poems for a World Gone to Sh*t.

A “world gone to sh*t” – that seems a fair diagnosis of the current age. And who can say they’re not to some degree infected by the hopelessness this tends to engender? It’s a widespread general malaise. But here in the bookshop this bold wee book fluttered in my palms. I opened it, and read the epigraph by Oscar Wilde:

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

It was my first inkling of why Poems for a World Gone to Sh*t had flown so urgently out of the shelves. It’s that fully-feathered thing, a book of hope. It deserves a perch in every human soul.

“XYZ of Happiness”: C is for Harriet

9 July 2018 7 Comments

Mary McCallum

We were a very new press, barely begun. The daughter of an old school friend had been diagnosed with cancer and was writing a blog. A bunch of us who’d been at school together began to read it. One of our group, illustrator Fifi Colston, sent me an email: ‘You could do worse than make a book about this.’ I agreed. This young woman knew how to write. Her blog posts had strong read-me titles and energetic don’t-argue-with-me first lines. They were focused on one event or idea and they told that story with economy and humour and knew where to end. She didn’t feel sorry for herself. She celebrated life. She often said how lucky she was.

Harriet came to meet with us – that’s me and my son and publishing sidekick Paul Stewart – in our shoebox office. This vibrant young woman with creamy skin and a red shiny coat that squeaked when she walked, who adored food – brownies, pizza – and friends and skiing, had osteosarcoma and things weren’t looking good, but she had an enormous love of life and capacity for hope. She was 19, after all. We talked about what a book would look like.
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