I'm beginning to feel like someone in that Monty Python sketch in the
railway carriage (you know, where "mosque" is next to "mosquito" in
the dictionary).
No, I didn't know, when I often think of Jane Austen's heroines when
I dose my sick headaches.
best
A
>Re Theory No. 331 would you agree as well that another source of the
>'epidemic' is the unbalanced individualism of our societies? That we are
>making worlds where everyone is being made alone? That's a very fuzzy
>thought though. Interesting that it was the Romantics who were used as
>therapy, I can see that, while did you know (Interesting Fact No. 331) that
>aspirin was actually a Victorian invention? I forget the details but it was
>based on a traditional folk-remedy, something like crushed willow-bark,
>which was the common remedy for the majority of the population who couldn't
>afford opium.
>
>Cheers
>
>Dave
>
>
>David Bircumshaw
>
>Leicester, England
>
>Home Page
>
>A Chide's Alphabet
>
>Painting Without Numbers
>
>www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm
>
>http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 2:50 AM
>Subject: Re: one more with feeling
>
>
>> Well I wasn't exactly _recommending_ analgesics, though I confess
>> that one of the reasons I am happy I was born in the 20C is the
>> invention of aspirin.
>>
>> But there is a general idea in Western societies that pain is _bad_
>> and to be avoided at all costs. Now I'm not one of those who thinks
>> that suffering is good for the soul - that's complete crap - but to
>> me it seems that the total avoidance of pain amounts to a total
>> avoidance of life. And so as a society we are less and less able to
>> deal with it, and I think that's the major reason for the "epidemic"
>> of mental illness which is happening now. It was telling for me that
>> once when a bunch of psychiatrists showed some patients some romantic
>> poetry (Wordsworth, Coleridge et al) they all began to feel better.
>>
>> Theory No. 331 from Alison.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> A
>>
>>
>> >Long may you continue, Liz!
>> >
>> >
>> >Alison is quite right about analgesics, if they work for one, I'm afraid
>I'm
>> >beyond any pain-killers, except for the visitations of sleep. The one
>thing
>> >I did have was a sense of poetry as a protected space, but that's been
>> >invaded now.
>> >
>> >But, yes, it is a triumph, to be alive.
>> >
>> >Best
>> >
>> >Dave
>> >
>> >
>> >David Bircumshaw
>> >
>> >Leicester, England
>> >
>> >Home Page
>> >
>> >A Chide's Alphabet
>> >
>> >Painting Without Numbers
>> >
>> >www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm
>> >
>> >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
>> >----- Original Message -----
>> >From: <[log in to unmask]>
>> >To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> >Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 12:56 AM
>> >Subject: Re: one more with feeling
>> >
>> >
>> >> In a message dated 12/26/01 10:10:45 GMT Standard Time,
>> >> [log in to unmask] writes:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > What makes it worse is the love one feels for others, if it were
>just a
>> >> > problem for one's selfish self it wouldn't be so bad.
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> yes this is a nub of real distress.......
>> >>
>> >> and to think of poetry without pain - ?
>> >>
>> >> or without joy - !
>> >>
>> >> I experience a world that is so completely wrapped about, often one
>does
>> >not
>> >> end before the other begins and sometimes I cannot tell the
>difference.
>> >It
>> >> seems a great triumph to me, simply to be alive.
>> >>
>> >> A fragile continuance
>> >>
>> >> Liz
>> >>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Alison Croggon
>>
>> Home page
>> http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
>> Masthead
>> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
>>
--
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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