When Hungry, Eat by Joanne Fedler

Author:Joanne Fedler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO026000
ISBN: 9781742690353
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2010-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

I’m now going to go back in time to a moment that changed my father’s life and which deeply influenced mine in turn. When my sister Carolyn was a baby, my parents knew intuitively that something wasn’t right but doctors couldn’t make a definitive diagnosis. Some had intimated brain damage to explain her wild behaviour and failure to speak intelligibly by the age of three. My parents were desperate for answers, and finally scheduled a brain scan for their little girl.

For this, Carolyn needed to drink a full bottle of tranquilising medicine, and the only way to get her to co-operate was to drive her around in the car. So my dad got her settled in the back seat and drove slowly around the block as she sucked on her bottle. All of a sudden, a bird dropped like a stone from the sky, landing feet up, on the bonnet. Keeping the engine running, my dad got out the car, examined the bird which seemed to be dead, wrapped it in a towel and put it on the front passenger seat. When he got home and was walking towards the house, holding Carolyn’s hand in his and the bird in the other, the bird shook itself free and flew with great winged gulps into the sky. My father was stirred to his core, believing it was a sign from God that ‘everything would be okay’.

Some people don’t understand things that aren’t facts. My mother’s a bit like this, and Zed veers in that direction. People like me and my dad, on the other hand, struggle with the literal, and are much more at home in the abstract and symbolic. After the bird, my father didn’t need any more ‘proof ’. My mother needed the results of the scan. Like my dad, I’m always on the lookout for a sign from God. We’re not peculiar in this regard. All forms of divination (astrology, tarot cards, the I Ching, or runes) engage with the mystical forces of the universe and have a long history over time. I don’t think it matters whether people choose to read tea-leaves, the stars, or throw the bones – it’s the impulse to engage the larger realm that helps us interpret the events in our lives. Divination opens a mystical dialogue with the invisible world, connecting us to larger forces in moments of darkness.

Of course, the results of the scan came back showing Carolyn had a hearing problem and there was nothing wrong with her brilliant brain.

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