Journal of Sacred Work

After New York Times essayist Anatole Broyard learned he was terminally ill he made a transcendent choice: To take charge of his illness by changing his life story. In Broyard's hands, what most would see as terrifying & victimizing became a tale of triumph told with some of his finest writing.

"…[my diagnosis] was like an immense electric shock," Broyard wrote. "I felt galvanized. I was a new person. All of my old trivial selves fell away and I was reduced to my essence." (italics added.)

Imagine being "galvanized" by news of your imminent death! Instead of thrashing in panic, Broyard swam straight into the waves. From amid the storms of his illness he created a story that reinforced one of life's most important truths: "…narratives are the most effective ways to keep our humanity alive," he wrote.

Isn't this true of all of us whether we are ill or well? Metaphor is more powerful than medicine for engaging the terminal condition we call life.

The cause of death is life. How else can we make any sense of it except through story? Huckleberry Finn captivates us through storytelling not through Power Point analysis.

"…a sick person can make a story out of his illness as a way of trying to detoxify it," Broyard wrote.

Imagine how caregiver's lives would change if they transformed the typical challenges of anxiety, success & drudgery into a narrative of meaning! Story therapy, art therapy, occupational therapy – all of these can restore life's most crucial source of energy – Hope.

What if caregivers engaged these therapies personally? What if leaders were trained to reimagine their work through the lens of new stories built from their daily lives?

Beyond clinical diagnosis lives humanity. Lose that & both patient & caregiver are cast adrift in a sea of misery unrelieved by what we need most – Love.

-Erie Chapman

Photoart: "Teresa's Hope" by Erie, 2019

NB: This column is based in part on a Journal entry from 2012