Resection and Anastamosis

Resection and anastomosis

This is a 1973 work by Lucas Samaras (a Greek photographer), titled 'Photo Transformation'.
I thought this pictures kind a resonates a lot with my article in its feelings, in its title and more subjective terms that i leave you to figure.

An ulcerated epithelium, perforated wall, infiltrative mass – what do you do? Resect and join the rest of the healthy human gut.

What if I/we could dispose of a phase, period of time in our lives which has done nothing but brought bad memories in the present day? The sequelae of such an event are long lasting, like a recurrent malignancy or get engrained into our life like a residual tumor. It’s amazing of how such incidents grip you and never let you go. While I am trying to capture a different angle where in one disposes off painful memories to start afresh, more educated and mature, I was challenged by someone who did the exact opposite and emerged victorious herself too.

2 days ago, I saw a TED video of Mrs. Sunitha Krishnan, a 35 year old, courageous woman who was narrating her life story and setting an example for the society to follow. An enraptured audience listened as she recollected the time she was 15 years old and was gang raped by 8 men repeatedly. Even though she admits to not remember those moments precisely, she does confess the extreme anger that gripped her and has not left her till date. It changed her line of thought, her goal. Today, she runs an NGO by the name of ‘Prajwala’ which rescues and rehabilitates sexually exploited women, adolescent girls and children. Till date she has saved the lives of 400 such women. She said one thing, which caught my attention:

"There's so much desensitization that has happened, so much normalization of exploitation that has happened, so much internalization of trauma that has happened."

What I make out of it is that extreme strength and drive is required to transform that negative aspect into a positive force. And that flicker may often get extinguished. Michael Oher, NFL player of Baltimore Ravens (which won the Superbowl 2013) is no different. His life story, which the world learnt about from the movie, ‘The Blindside’, also demonstrates the drive that took him out of the projects (slums) and into the successful career path of an American football player ; an All – American twice and then as an NFL player in 2009 for Baltimore Ravens. Leann Touhy and her family played a huge role in shaping his career, adopting him and guiding him and she has only 2 words to say to the society, “Turn Around!”

Both stories highlight one point; resection and anastomosis do not work in context to a diseased continuum of gut – like life! Bearing the painful memories is ‘Treatment of Choice’, and the medication called ‘time’ shall act as palliative therapy over time and make your life easy to live.     

Amen.