Filet of Soul

Sickness is a form of recusal. You stay away from others to heal and also to protect those others from picking up what you have. The latter is particularly the case with Covid which is highly contagious. In the case of some mental disorders the point of the illness is to facilitate isolation. The sickness whether depression or anxiety is a symptom of a deeper dis-ease to which an affect calls attention. Terminology has changed over time. In the 50s when Miltown was prescribed "nervous breakdown" was a much-used soubriquet. Patients were "institutionalized." Now they are sent to rehabs because of another ailment "alcoholism" (not "wasim" btw). It's not that there weren't always alcoholics, it's that awareness of the condition and its effects took time to register in the consciousness of both the lay and  medical communities. Practitioners of Zen attend monasteries. Is the spiritual retreat taken in response to spiritual sickness? Or is it that the soul must go into hiding, before it can come back to life?

Listen to "Tears of the Clown" by Smokey Robinson

and see the invite for Hallie Cohen's show, Mi Ricordo: Roman Watercolors, opening on February 29