TheBanyanTree: stranger things have happened

[Julie Anna Teague]

My partner L called me this morning. He's home from his trip 4 hours north of
here to see an Amish healer of some renown in this area. He left last night
because people told him that he would have to get to the man's farm at 4:30 am
and get a number. He called me last night from a LaQuinta, telling me he'd
arrived safely. I didn't have much doubt that he would, but it was nice of him
to check in. There was a time...well, we don't need to go back there. And I was
just as glad to hear from him when he got home this morning. As far as seeing
the healer, we had decided to pursue any and all alternative therapies at this
point, because there is no other treatment the oncologist recommends right now.
Not until there are worrisome symptoms. So why not see an Amish healer? It all
seemed a little like a diversion from the thought of what might lie down the
road.  Here's his story:

He got there at 4:30 am as instructed. He was the first one there. A minute or
so later, another man drove up, and by 6:00 am there were ten other people there
to see this man. At first light, the old man came out and called L into the
barn. The man had a long white beard, sat down close to and directly facing L,
and asked him, "What's ailin' ya?" L said he'd been diagnosed with lymphoma, a
form of cancer. The man picked up a magnifying glass and looked in L's left eye
and said, instantly, "Your spleen's not working. It's genetic. Your chromosomes
are damaged." (The spleen is a major organ the lymphatic system and the CT scan
had shown cancer there.) Then he brought two fingers together and put them near
(not touching) L's spleen. L said it was like something from the "The Green
Mile". He repeated the finger thing over other spots, held a bottle of liquid up
to L's body, and then said he was fixed. L asked, does he need to do anything
else? Herbs? Diet? The old man said, "Nope. You're fixed." L asked what he owed
the man. "Nothin. No charge." The whole thing took five minutes. L drove home
and told me this story.

I don't know. It is hard to believe because it would be a miracle. It calls into
question all sorts of beliefs. Was Jesus Christ the first and last miracle
healer?  Is L really healed?  He said to me, "I can't explain it, but in my
heart and in my body, I really believe I am fixed."  I know him well and I know
that he is serious about this.  He will have another CT scan in a couple of
months. Do I have the guts to believe in a miracle? What if the CT scan shows
that a miracle has happened and leaves me no choice but to believe in them? What
if the CT scan shows no miracle and leaves me with complete surity that none
really exist in this world, even for those who believe the hardest?


Julie Anna Teague
jateague at indiana.edu

   You ask what the universe is doing?  It is eavesdropping on your every desire.