jakorte's blog

While the Mayo Clinic is still searching for Mom’s diagnosis, one new theory is that she has a shunt somewhere in her body.

The term shunt is used to describe a situation where there is ventilation without oxygenation. It is a serious physiological problem, resulting in more carbon dioxide than oxygen in the system. However, it is interesting to note that not all organs are designed to transport oxygen into the human system. The nasopharynx and trachea are examples of areas known as "dead space" and are an anatomical necessity.

Uncomfortably, I started thinking about psychological dead space; you know - the place we retreat to when we’ve had enough. It doesn’t really matter what it is we’ve had enough of. Retreat is the way we respond, repair, and regenerate the necessary authenticity of our lives. The scary part is wanting to stay there.

In a way, personal shunting occurs a lot more frequently than we might imagine. We cultivate our “dead space.” We simply do not allow the flow of a good, gracious, helping and healing GOD to reach our hearts. We allow ourselves significant dead space, in order not to feel pain or injustice or loneliness, or anything we don’t want to.

I’m not a fan of personal pain, but I’m also not content to live without love, or the accompanying losses that inevitably occur. I realize I can’t have it both ways. If I choose to employ a shunt, to expand my “dead space,” the consequence is clear: neither the bad nor the good will get through.

Am I saying that we have enough control to commit our shunt to letting GOD in or keep all Godly things out?

Of course we can: a theological shunt can be theologically directed.

And as I have philosophized before: The only real control we have is how much control we allow GOD to have.

But, it is important to clarify - GOD is not the shunt. It’s what we need from HIM that must flow through; uninterrupted, uncorrupted, unconditionally. Just as the good and welcome rain may sometimes temper a tornado, we may expect some bad will flow through with the good.

And, it is important to clarify - we will also never have any hope of being healed unless HE is allowed, and moving, within us. Unless we end our shunting.

In this issue: Shunts, Mayo Clinic, Tornados, Making or Enduring History?

Now posted:
New Orleans, 2009, Action Plan: Detailing
A Seussian Ode to Neurology, Poetry, 2010