Healing

9/01/07

The business of healing body, psyche, and soul is huge and encompasses the disciplines of religion, art, and some science. Living in a very different society forces one to look more closely at the society left behind. Let me try to explain.

Here in Iva a two year old neighbor girl was very sick with a fever, swollen throat, and cried throughout the night in considerable discomfort. The grandmother took the child several times to a traditional healer where the child was given massages with certain leaves and oils, she also went to the local hospital where the child was diagnosed with mumps and given an antibiotic, and then she went across the street to the Catholic church to pray and accept God’s will. After several days, the child was better.

Why did the child get better? Of course, your answer depends on what you believe and the amount of faith you place in that belief.

Like a Venn diagram with overlapping circles, most of us like to cover our bets by not relying on one method of healing alone, but we do tend to favor one method over the other. Samoans are no different. They just tend to favor different circles than Americans. They place as much faith in their circles as we do in ours. It really isn’t worth a debate. Who knows, maybe we somehow mystically heal ourselves despite our interventions and circles, or failing, accept our fate as mortals.