Carl Bell, MD: Medical Activist & Human Rights Champion with an Indomitable Fighting Spirit

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The Sanity of Survival – A Review of the Collected Papers of Carl Bell, MD

The Sanity of Survival: Reflections on Community Mental Health and Wellness (2004) collects the papers of psychiatrist, Carl Bell, MD. Dr. Bell was on faculty at University of Illinois – Chicago, where I did my psychiatric education 1993-1997. I had the opportunity to hear him speak in grand rounds and other educational lectures, but I did not know him personally. I remember him as outspoken, with a keen intellect, and a person who was not afraid to challenge paradigms. Given the recent events in the United States, the death of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter movement, I thought back to my training and career, looking for someone who worked on racism and human rights within psychiatry and I thought of Carl Bell. I have also been doing a lot of thinking about what I am calling medical activism: the professional responsibility to go beyond the four walls of the clinic to be a moral agent promoting health & wellness in the world. Dr. Bell surely qualifies as a medical activist!

Carl Bell, MD, https://www.psych.uic.edu/profile/carl-c-bell

Carl Compton Bell (October 28, 1947 – August 2, 2019) was born in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, attended University of Illinois for undergraduate, Meharry Medical College, Illinois State Psychiatric Institute for psychiatric residency and then served in the Navy 1974-1976. He dedicated his life to improving the survival and health of inner city African-Americans: looking at violence as a public health issue, the effects of racism on health, educating residents on cultural sensitivity for working with Black populations, innovating programs and systems (developing day hospitals, crisis beds, outreach programs), engaging in medical activism, and focusing on health and well-being. A true renaissance man, Dr. Bell was a public health researcher, a front-line clinician, a systems innovator, a health advocate who appeared on many TV, radio, and popular magazines, and a public health policy consultant for the Department of Health & Human Services and the Surgeon General.

Two guiding principles he mentions in his book are “bent nail research” and “getting rid of the rats.” He learned that a good doctor won’t just treat a rat bite, but will help to get rid of the rats in the neighborhood. He thus saw the role of the doctor and psychiatrist as not a technician in an office, but as an engaged professional intervening in the world. Robert Jay Lifton calls this a “witnessing professional,” (Lifton RJ, Losing Reality: On Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry, p. 190). This role of the physician as a moral agent having a moral role is consistent with Virchow’s statement in the 19th Century, “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale,” (McNeely IF, Medicine on a Grand Scale: Rudolf Virchow, Liberalism, and the Public Health). Dr. Bell’s “bent nail research” developed when he was a kid and wanted to have a bookshelf and scavenged some boards and straightened out some bent nails.

“The completed bookcase leaned to one side and looked like hell! Yet it could always hold more than its share of books, and that was all that was important to me. The quality of research is very much like that bookcase. It may not be airtight scientifically because of limited resources and far-from-perfect methodology. However, our findings have been just as useful to as my bookcase was,” (xii).

These two guiding principles led to Dr. Bell’s “call for systemic interventions to address problems of the community rather than solving them on a case-by-case basis,” (xi). He describes other underlying principles of his life’s work as, “we’re all interdependent” and “states of consciousness…play a vital role in health and mental health,” (xii). This led to such things as developing a Wellness Institute, teaching Black Intrapsychic Survival Skills, researching states of consciousness in relationship to health, encouraging patients and trainees to learn martial arts, tai chi, and meditation. He expanded the concept of “combat fatigue” in veterans to “survival fatigue” in inner city African Americans exposed to daily stress of inner-city life (250-256). He sought to understand the effects of coma and brain injury on later violence, to understand and mitigate the effects of trauma on children and adults, and to understand and end inner city violence. He saw violence as a public health problem, presaging the recent move to consider gun violence as part of the “lane” or responsibility for doctors.

Violence is just one of the risks in the inner city, Dr. Bell saw the inequities in health between races in Chicago, as he wrote:

“As an African-American physician, I’ve always had a very different mission from most European-American physicians. European-American physicians are often concerned with trying to improve the ‘quality of life’ of their mainly European-American patients. Since leaving medical school, one of my major missions has been to save lives of my mainly African-American patients. Although I am interested in ‘wellness,’ until African-American life expectancy reaches that of European-Americans, I feel obligated to spend more time on ‘saving lives―making a difference’…There are very few people who value poor, mentally ill black people. As a result, resources allocated to help this population are scarce. This reality has always demanded the need to develop creative and innovative ways of effectively and efficiently serving the poor and underserved,” (50).

The title of his book, The Sanity of Survival, speaks to this focus on survival first and then sanity second – or perhaps it points out that without first dealing with the survival issues of the social (and moral) determinants of health, adverse childhood experiences, institutional racism, and violence, that there can be no sanity. Dr. Bell’s work developing programs such as day treatment and emergency housing (to help preserve community connections which can be disrupted by hospitalization), enhancing community support systems, assertive community treatment and case management, victim screening and support services, and a Wellness Institute, created an infrastructure (where there was none) to provide a spectrum of care for the whole person. He worked through Jackson Park Hospital and started the Community Mental Health Council. He also advocated for the use of “psychoanalytic theory in helping African-American patients cope with stress,” (91). He published papers on racism and narcissism and used psychoanalytic theory to understand racism, even considering whether racism, itself, should be considered a mental illness. (This is such important and relevant work that I will address it in a separate blog).

Dr. Bell’s concept of “survival fatigue” in inner city African-Americans compared the “high death rate, crime, unemployment, illness, and discrimination…inadequate housing, nutrition, education, and health and mental health care” to the stressors of combat and attendant combat fatigue, what we now call Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, (252). There is a growing awareness that another condition related to military service, moral injury, may also apply to systematic racism and Dr. Bell’s article, “Black Intrapsychic Survival Skills” could be seen as addressing moral injury. Through the cultural use of consciousness altering modalities in song and dancing in spiritual, ceremonial, and recreational settings, Dr. Bell saw resilience within the African-American community and culture. These consciousness altering techniques help to harmonize one with the environment, build community and help to process trauma and stress. These interests are part of Dr. Bell’s desire to “devise a true African-American-centered psychology,” (280). This was part of his shift to looking at “African-American strengths rather than deficits” for “cultivating resiliency” or even “resistance.” Through his clinical work and life, he concluded that, “there are two types of people when confronted with trauma: those who play funeral music deep inside and those who play adventure music,” (250-251).  Dr. Bell always tried to be a person playing adventure music for himself and his patients.

This is just scratching the surface of the life and work of Dr. Carl Bell, a psychiatrist whose holistic focus on body, mind, race, culture, society, disease, wellness, and advocacy is an outstanding example of medical activism and compassionate humanism. Dr. Stevan Weine calls him “a saint of service to African American patients, a saint of ‘bent nail’ research and ‘make it plain’ advocacy,” (Weine, “Dr. Carl Bell’s ‘Bent Nail Research,’” Psychology Today, November 5, 2019). Dr. Bell’s desire to heal the hurts of individuals and society went beyond the prescription pad and the hospital. We know that medical students tend to lose idealism during medical training and that burnout and compassion fatigue are more the norm than the exception these days. Somehow Carl Bell nurtured and developed resilience and idealism throughout his life and work. He closes his book telling us to listen to the words of the song, “Dream the Impossible Dream,” in order to develop kokoro “(indomitable fighting spirit, in Japanese),” (467). Let’s let Dr. Carl Bell have the last words and close with quotes from his afterword and I will soon write the next installment on his thoughts on racism and narcissism.

Dr. Carl Bell, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/dr-carl-bell-41

“I’ve recently realized that a major problem with psychiatry is that it’s too focused on what we were trained to do. It sometimes feels like psychiatry is stuck in a box that only recognizes diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, being in this box precludes psychiatrists from involving themselves with prevention and from focusing on strengths and characteristics of resilience and resistance. These are just as much a part of the human condition as is the psychopathology we were trained to identify and treat. Fortunately, some of us are blessed enough to be on the fringe, which allows us to occasionally leave the box and get a different perspective. This brings new paradigms and models that benefit the human condition.”

“I recall Dr. Boris Astrachan, former Chairman of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago…telling me that I’m on the fringe. Psychiatrists are already on the fringe of society because we address the ills of those who are on the fringe by virtue of their psychopathology…Being on the fringe of the fringe, if you will, by virtue of being ahead of your time, is a lonely existence.”

“I also recall Dr. Astrachan telling me that the fringe was the best place to be because I could bring new ideas and have a great deal of innovative influence. I’ve often wondered why I find myself at the seat of power since I’m usually the ‘odd man out,’ and based on the depth and breadth of my work, haven’t really belonged in many rooms. With time and experience, I’ve learned that my being the ‘odd man out’ has contributed greatly to the creativity, humor, leadership, and productive dynamic tension in the room, and that we all have walked out more enriched. So, being on the fringe of the fringe has been a curse but also a huge blessing,” (466-467).

References:

Bell, Carl. The Sanity of Survival: Reflections on Community Mental Health and Wellness. Chicago: Third World Press, 2004.

Lifton, Robert Jay. Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry. New York: The New Press, 2019.

Martin, Michelle. “Can I Just Tell You: Remembering Dr. Carl Bell.” NPR, August 18, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/08/18/752221085/can-i-just-tell-you-remembering-dr-carl-bell

Moffic, Steven H, MD. “For Psychiatry, Our Bell Tolls for the Loss Of Carl Bell, MD.” Psychiatric Times, August 5, 2019, https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychiatry-our-bell-tolls-loss-carl-bell-md

McNeely Ian F, Medicine on a Grand Scale: Rudolf Virchow, Liberalism, and the Public Health. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University of London, 2002.

Weine, Stevan. “Dr. Carl Bell’s “Bent Nail Research,” Psychology Today, November 5, 2019, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cafes-around-the-world/201911/dr-carl-bells-bent-nail-research

Wikipedia, “Carl Bell (Physician),” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Bell_(physician)

The Art of Becoming Medicine.10

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For the next two art works from Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality, we have one from Joseph and one from myself. Joseph’s painting is “Vision of the Blessed Virgin.” Joseph told me of at least three different visions of the Madonna. The first visit I made to Colorado, Joseph directed me to drive around (it felt like we were driving in circles at times!) and one of the places he took me to was a house in Bayfield where there was a gas explosion and Joseph was blown over, injuring his knees. He had another vision one time in an AA meeting. That painting is in Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD, entitled “Awakening at AA Meeting,” (p. 135). We also have a painting of Joseph’s in that book entitled, “Madonna Over Sound Peace Chamber,” (p. 189).

Vision of the Blessed Virgin, J. Rael (2015)

My painting I called, “Shamanic Vision,” I was trying to capture the two realities Joseph speaks of: Ordinary and Non-ordinary Reality. I also added the colors of the rainbows that Joseph uses in his paintings: yellow, orange, red, blue.

Shamanic Vision, D. Kopacz (2016)

That’s the way I live. I never know how the things I do are going to turn out. I just show up and do what I’m told. This energy follows me around, but I always know if I don’t do what I’m told I will be unhappy. I used to tell my students, be sure that you follow your guidance because that guidance is in your higher interest. From that, other experiences will come to you that will enhance your growth. (Joseph Rael, p. 108 – from House of Shattering Light, p. 110-111).

Announcing The-POV: Interviews & Conversations by Usha Akella & David Kopacz

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I met Usha Akella when she was doing a keynote presentation at the Power of Words conference in 2019, put on by the Transformative Language Arts Network. We both were interested in writing, poetry, creativity, and the spiritual path. Usha has long had a dream of developing an interview site online and I have been doing various interviews for my work – so it seemed like a good fit and less than a year later The-POV was born and launched into the world!

Usha’s first new interview is with Ann Ciccolella, Artistic Director of Austin Shakespeare since 2007. One of the things Usha has been impressed with is the depth and breadth of cultural programming Ann has curated.

Usha Akella: I am delighted to finally have an opportunity to explore your creative visions, Ann. I’ve attended your plays for years in awe at your ability to cast any play in a contemporary light. Your cross-cultural productions and multi-ethnic casts contribute to dialogue and peace-making. Your productions are playful, pushing the edge yet never lacking conviction or losing a grip on the playwright’s script. You’ve managed to bring Bollywood and Texas boots, and a female Hamlet to your stage. So, let’s begin by exploring the audacity of Ann Ciccolella. Why are you compelled to rewrite/reimagine or re-vision and can we chat about some of your productions that you felt were successful and those that were not—in your opinion.

Ann Cicolella: My own playwriting is a top value for me. Writing my own adaptations is something that I have been doing in the past couple of years. I want to do more playwriting, but finding the time needed to create scripts from their inception is something that I haven’t been able to do since leading Austin Shakespeare!  So, I have been adapting classic stories. I used the plot of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey and wrote a one-hour play version for middle and high school audiences. That experience was alternately challenging and delightful. During the rehearsal process, I try to inspire actors to create an imaginative performance, and with six actors we together created the many worlds of Homer’s The Odyssey. You see, adapting is a way to satisfy that thirst for my own playwriting.

My first interview for The-POV is with my friend and mentor, Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow). Joseph is of the Southern Ute tribe through his mother and of Picuris Pueblo through his father. Joseph is the author of a number of books and he and I have written two books together, Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD (2016) and Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality (2020).

David R. Kopacz: We’re going to have a section of Becoming Medicine reprinted in Parabola magazine – Jeff Zaleski wants the sections, “Initiation of the Circle” and “Moon Woman Vision.” You have statements in those sections that we are “circle people” and “what comes around goes around” and that “everything eventually becomes its opposite.” You also say, “Look at how we move in a circle, but then look at it from the side and it looks like we are moving forward and backward, back and forth. It depends on your perspective of seeing.”

Joseph Rael – Beautiful Painted Arrow (BPA): That’s apropos for this time. That’s how it is – we move back and forth and back and forth. We move forward and then we spoil it by invalidating it. In order to get in tune with it, we need to use our feet. That’s why we have these physical feet and they are made for traveling. When we go forward we add something. But then we go backward and we forget it. In this life, you have to be constantly correcting yourself. 


That’s what my dances are supposed to do. They check everything on the list. When you are dancing you move forward and backwards in balance. You dance to cover the winter; you dance to cover the spring; you dance to cover the summer; and you dance to cover the autumn. You also dance to cover the North, South, East, West – the directions. 


I’m just being a book from the universe and showing you what to do.

You can read the full interviews at The-POV.

The Art of Becoming Medicine.9

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The next two art works are both from Joseph. We are still in Chapter 4, “Becoming a Visionary,” of Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality by David R. Kopacz & Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow).

At Vision Quest Visiting with Dandelion, Joseph Rael (2006)

Visions are new knowledge, guiding insights that come in visual form, rich with symbolism and archetypes. Visions are different than intellectual, linear thought – they are in-breakings of the divine into ordinary life.

Puuh-Tea Bringer of New Knowing, Joseph Rael (2006)

“Ceremony is the way to do this. It gives us powers. Ceremony works because there is crying for a vision. By crying for a vision, I mean that the soul is longing for light, so it can drink it in and thus fulfill its nature. If light – vision – is lacking, there is sadness,” (J. Rael, cited, p. 89).

The Journey of a Seeker & Visionary – A review of Guided By Spirit, by Michael Pedroncelli

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Mike is a friend of mine whom I met through Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow) and he gave me a copy of this book and I would like to return the gift by writing this review.

Mike is a sincere and compassionate seeker and this book tells the story of his journey building the Circle of Light Peace Chamber. Mike followed his dreams and visions to bring them into reality and he has many spiritual adventures along the way. I would say that Mike is a gentle soul.

Like many mystics, Mike’s journey takes him from a sense of an isolated ego to the experience of interconnected being – “Being awake and open to All,” (205).

He learns about the meaning and purpose of life and the importance of attending to inner visions and bringing them into material reality, thus becoming a Liminal Being, or, as Joseph Rael might say, an “In-Betweener,” or a “hollow bone.”

“What you need is to let go of all the fear and let go of all the pain in you, and then you are not competing and you know you are on your soul’s journey and living your purpose – when you are that pure love that you are. Just trust in the love that you are, and you’re always living your purpose and on your path,” (166).

I have been to visit Mike, and his wife Marie, several times after meeting him at the book release and 80th birthday party of Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow) in 2015. We featured a picture of The Circle of Light Sound Peace Chamber in Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD, (page 95 – I still feel bad about the typo of your surname in the caption – sorry about that Mike!).

My sister, Karen, and I met with Mike & Marie in October, 2018 and filmed them talking about the construction of the chamber. You can watch the video of that, here. And see other videos of my work with Joseph Rael here, and here.

Mike & Marie Pedroncelli, Circle of Light Sound Peace Chamber, photo K. Kopacz (2018)

The Art of Becoming Medicine.8

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Here are the next two paintings from Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality, by David R. Kopacz, MD & Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow). The first painting is by Joseph, Where God and Humans Meet. This was one of the first paintings that Joseph gifted me when we first started working together. These paintings are found in chapter 4, Becoming a Visionary. Here is what I wrote about the painting in the book:

ON VISIONS

“Joseph’s artwork comes from his visions. What he sees in his visions he puts in his artwork. I keep a number of Joseph’s paintings around my desk. One of these is “Where God and Humans meet.” This painting is in
the shape of a large vase, filled with tiny dots—like stars or molecules of gas. There is a central point, like a sun, which shines two rays downward to the top of two people’s heads and there is a little star where that divine
energy enters in through the crown (7th) chakra. Arching upwards from the central sun is a divine being, God or Vast Self. As always in Joseph’s paintings, this divine being is looking upwards and has a large black eye (which is a black hole, Joseph says, and this black hole is about the same size as the light giving central sun). The edge of the vase and the back of this divine being are the same line, the vase grows out of the divine
being which creates a container of and for existence. We are the vase that contains the space where God and humans meet, but from a visionary perspective, the material we are made of, the vase, is the material of Wah-Mah-Chi, Breath-Matter-Movement, in other words, God. Visions come from the divine and they reveal to us who we are. Visions are the soul drinking light, Joseph says,” (78).

Where God and Humans Meet, J. Rael 2015

The next painting is one of mine. When I was living in New Zealand I began reading Henry Corbin and was fascinated by his description of the ‘alam al-mithal, the place where “Spirits are corporealized and bodies are spiritualized,” (Corbin, Spiritual Body, Celestial Earth, 177). I would sit and meditate, looking out at the volcano, Rangitoto, and would try to find what this place of ‘alam al-mithal would be like. I painted 10 different paintings, but I’m not sure I could capture my vision.

‘Alam al-mithal, D. Kopacz (2016)

“Visions are at the center of this book, just as the heart is at the center of the medicine wheel and our hearts are the center of our being. A vision is a little bit like a poem, or maybe a dream. It can be of brief, passing interest, or it can be an orienting structure for the rest of your life,” (78).

The Art of Becoming Medicine.7

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Here are two more art works from Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality by David R. Kopacz, MD & Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow).

The first painting, “Dove of Peace,” is by Joseph Rael. He describes how he had a vision after his foster mother, Lucia, died – he saw a white dove in the corner of the room and had a glimpse of paradise. This painting is in Chapter 3, “Separation.” You have to go through separation before you can go through reunion.

Dove of Peace, Joseph Rael (2018)

The next painting is one of mine, “Visionary Perception,” and starts off chapter 4, “Becoming a Visionary.”

Visionary Perception, David Kopacz

“For me, I was in training all the time that I was in Picuris. If everything is considered holy, then you are always in training.

Apparently I was in training for right now—to tell the people in the United States what we are built to do and that we are the Sacred. We are the holy ones. That is why I always speak with eloquence.” (Joseph Rael)

Spiritual Democracy – Happy Interdependence Day!

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We are into the July 4th Weekend of the Pandemic. Will this weekend be any different than any other weekend of the pandemic? Social Distancing, we keep to ourselves, we turn inwards – and yet the birthday of when this nation was established (recognizing that we invaded other nations that were already here on this land) is usually about going out, barbequeing with friends, watching fireworks in crowds.

We have our independence from Britain – but what are we using it for? What are we doing with this independence? We are not independent of our acts of aggression, genocide, and slavery – those are intertwined with the founding of the United States of America.

Maybe we have taken independence as far as it can safely go. The current political regime in power in the USA gives us pause to consider this. Maybe it is time that we stopped celebrating independence and started celebrating Interdependence.

We would start by acknowleding our interdependence with Mother Earth and her children, this land that we live on which we took from our Native American brothers & sisters. Then it would lead to acknowledging our interdependence with Africa and her children whom our ancestors captured and enslaved, prospering off of their labor. Then it would lead to acknowledging our interdependence with all the people of the Earth.

This Interdependence Day weekend, we offer to you Chapter 14: Spiritual Democracy, from our book, Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality.

Earth Child of Spiritual Democracy, Joseph Rael (1997)

“Spiritual Democracy is a living connection, allowing the flow of spirituality through our lives, embracing the divinity in all creatures and the divinity of the Earth. Spiritual democracy is the way we treat others when we learn to see the divine in all things and that we, too, are part of divinity. It is a sacred way of being. Periodically, we forget that we are divine as we live in this world of matter and go through its trials and travails. We, as individuals, as well as we as people, need periodic renewal at the font of spiritual democracy.” (p. 381)

We invite you to use this holiday weekend to renew our Spiritual Democracy. Let’s put the “we” back in “We the people…”

If you’d like to read the chapter, just download the pdf below.

Spiritual-Democracy-chapter-14Download

Happy Interdependence Day!

The Art of Becoming Medicine.6

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These next two pieces from Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality include one by me and one by Joseph.

My painting, Creation, is a large, 30×40″ painting. The bottom of the painting somehow is cut off in the book, but below is the full painting. It has some glow in the dark paint – a phase I went through that is nice when you turn off the lights because it is like having a painting hidden within a painting.

Creation, D. Kopacz

Joseph’s painting is Sun and Dancing Moonlight on the People of Mother Earth, painted in 2006. Joseph developed a Sun Moon Dance and it is still performed by people he taught it to all over the world.

Sun and Dancing Moonlight on the People of Mother Earth, J. Rael (2006)

An excerpt from this section of the book will appear in the Fall issue of Parabola. Here is a quote from Joseph in this section:

Joseph is continually teaching me about the circular nature of reality, saying that we are “circle people,” that “what comes around goes around,” and that “everything eventually becomes its opposite.” He also points out how the difference between a linear and circular perception is based on the perspective or paradigm through which you are perceiving. “Look at how we move in a circle, but then look at it from the side and it looks like we are moving forward and backward, back and forth. It depends on your perspective of seeing.”

The Art of Becoming Medicine.5

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These next two paintings from Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into A Living Spirituality, are both Joseph Rael’s. The first, Eagle Dancing Feather Becoming Medicine Heals the People was originally Eagle Dancing Feather Medicine Heals. Joseph had me write on the print “Becoming” and “the People” so that we could use this painting as the cover. It, thus, has several different elements, like an acrostic.

Eagle Dancing Feather Medicine Heals The People, Joseph Rael (2016)

The next painting is the first of two paintings of Chimney Rock that we included in the book. Chimney Rock is a historic Pueblo structure on the Southern Ute Reservation. The structures were aligned to be able to tell the seasons based on the progress of the moon in relation to the peaks of Chimney Rock

Lunar Stand-still at Chimney Rock, Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow), 2005

I felt drawn to visit Chimney Rock on my second visit to see Joseph in Colorado, but the gates were closed. (The first visit I had gone to Mesa Verde). I made it there in 2016. I happened to get there as there was a sunset flute performance and I had a little friend visit me there.

A little friend, D. Kopacz (2016)
Chimney Rock, Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado, D. Kopacz (2016)

“In English, ‘medicine’ is something that still needs to happen, but in Tiwa medicine is already there, it is a power. Every human being is a power. One becomes a medicine person through practicing one’s destiny. The child already has his or her own medicine. Through practicing one’s destiny, the medicine person manifests the medicine that was already there as a child. The child makes medicine all those years and then becomes an adult.” (Joseph Rael – Beautiful Painted Arrow, page 30)