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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/