once when i worked with elderly,women in a mental health boarding home, a
deeply wise, but psychiatrically incarcerated woman said to me. " say,
did I ever tell you about the time the laundry room expired in Rivernew,
and turned into reptil world. It was lovely the way they all sunned
themselves on those hills, not the big hill it was the little hill between
the laundry and the tuck shop. My goodness now they glistendo n those
green hills, I can still see it now." meley,jan. 1987.
This woman had been incarcerated in a psychiatric warehouse for about 25
years, I met her near the end of her life. this statement that she gifted
me, near the end of a 24 hour shift in a boarding home , in an inner city
facility, well it changed my life, because I was forced to encounter the
deep humanity within it, its poetry, and its unexpressible meaning - she
was sharing her experience of a local reptile rescue group who brought some
snakes and lizards to the institution where Meley was housed. her memory
of this event, her language, many years later, well, it told me something
about the uncertainty of meaning, its fragility, and perhaps the sacred in
not knowing for sure what is meant. Jack Goody speaks of the "law of the
letter" - does the tryanny of literate cetainty anihilate our knowing?
ont' you think that is what we all aim for in some way, to fix it is to
kill it.
enuff for tonight
k..
"science does not vanquish mystery" Annie Dillard "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"
*****************************
Kathryn Alexander, email ...... kalexand who-is-at sfu.ca
Doctoral Candidate, FAX .........(604) 291 - 3203
Faculty of Education, SFU(message).....(604) 291- 3395
Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6