Kardia Kaiomenē: No Matter What

While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary. - Chinua Achebe

Spring is a beautiful time of year to be in Detroit. The leaves and the flowers burst on the scene in fast forward. The red robin returned to our back deck to build another nest for her babies. We open the windows to feel the breeze and hear birdsong every morning and evening - and gunshots every once in a while. We see raccoons, groundhogs, pheasants and falcons. A few weeks ago, we encountered a coyote at dusk, just a block from our condo. On days off, we drive to the beach on Belle Isle (the 982-acre island in the middle of the Detroit River) or to Bishop Lake, a state park about fifty miles west of the city.

Since our last quarterly blog update, Lindsay has taken blood tests, gotten her hormone levels checked and got a brain scan (on Easter Sunday!). Everything came out "normal." She's been taking heavy doses of Vitamin D and B-12, in addition to the Chinese herbal tea formula prescribed by her acupuncturist Annie. The next step in the referral process is to see an endocrinologist, as Lindsay and her team both suspected her particular Long Covid symptoms to be connected with her nervous system, potentially an onslaught that led to a severe adrenal insufficiency, among other things. Before seeing that specialist (her appointment isn't until 6/15!), Lindsay started following a regimen for adrenal repair on her own - continuing to avoid spiking her heart rate (no high impact cardio, very little social time, medical leave from work), and making some key adjustments around diet (cutting out coffee, alcohol and processed foods, but also upping her intake of electrolytes via a daily I.V. hydration powder, and eating more meals, more regularly - she even braved a stint of eating red meat every day for 3 weeks! Oh, and salt. Lots of salt.). Radical REST was also a key requirement and healer, and regular walking and meditation practices became not only integral medicine, but unexpected delight.

In mid May, Lindsay asked her homeopath Carrie if this incapacitation of fog and fatigue would now become her new normal. A disability she would live with from here on out, having to remain vigilant and never push beyond her limits for risk of relapse, as has become the reality for far too many afflicted by Long Covid. Carrie was quick to shoot that down. She was extremely optimistic. Because Lindsay dove deep and took the healing process so seriously (and was able to take medical leave): the regimens, rest and remedies, and the ongoing emotional/spiritual work, Carrie affirmed it's all part of the same holistic path to healing. She was confident Lindsay would not only make a full recovery, but be restored to a state of health even deeper than before she became ill.

Sure enough, about three weeks ago, Lindsay started feeling like herself again! She finally has energy to go for runs and be with people, and is even sleeping full nights again! We are so grateful for those who reached out via texts, emails, calls, cards, care packages, prayers and Door Dash surprises. The love really flowed from this network of dear kindreds. Lindsay has begun feeling so well that she was able to cancel her endocrinology appointment this week. Although we never received a clear cut diagnosis (since she healed before her docs could find one! and since adrenal insufficiency and CFS often go undetected and undiagnosed by western diagnostic tools), much of it matches the experiences of friends who have dealt with adrenal fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome. All of these symptoms are characteristic of long haul Covid, a mysterious and persistent disease that is affecting and devastating millions of Americans in a variety of alarming ways. The more times we are reinfected with Covid-19, the more likely it is that we will experience some form of it.

Lindsay is treading softly as she slowly moves forward into normal work rhythms, but we are elated that in just two months of working intensively with a homeopath and acupuncturist, she was able to make a full recovery in such a short amount of time. We pray for the millions more suffering - that the truth around the healing power and effectiveness of alternative medicine and treatment modalities like homeopathy and acupuncture for treating long haul Covid will spread far and wide. And that it will become funded! Recognized as an integral part of the healthcare treatment we need amidst this Long Covid epidemic we are now living through, stealing the lives and livelihoods of far too many.

After a long winter in the D, Spring sent Tom on a few recent travel trips. He facilitated a little personal retreat in Brookville, PA at the end of April. In early May, he was in Oregon for a solo writing retreat. Over Memorial Day weekend, he went down to Kentucky to help curate an intimate 24-hour men's retreat in the Red River Gorge and then preached a Pentecost sermon at a church in Lexington. He's leaning more and more into this work with men, whether it's one-on-one, or with monthly zoom calls, or in short retreat sessions. Looking ahead, there are some really fun opportunities to partner some churches and dear friends to do this work in different parts of the country.

The goal of these gatherings is to animate and cultivate a masculinity that subverts the self-sufficient, heroic and perfectionistic storylines scripted by conservative Christian theology, capitalist framing, sports ideology and a million messages from the media. There is another Story - and the men aren't the main characters. We can release the pressure and drop the controlling behavior. Because we are beloved and we belong to everyone else. This sacred truth is an invitation to be tender, nurturing, vulnerable, present, humble and open-hearted. Above all, breaking rank with toxic gender expectations means going public with our convictions - which is often uncomfortable and unpopular.

Here in Detroit, we are organizing with Core City Strong, a small neighborhood collective committed to long-time, long-income residents of the Black-majority Core City neighborhood. In the past six months, we have successfully stymied a wealthy white developer from building a three-story concrete crusher facility. We even got the mayor to write a letter objecting to it. Now the city is suing him for his refusal to clean-up the mess on his lot. Moving forward, Core City Strong is being proactive, going through the process of appealing to the city to downzone lots so these kinds of "industries" can't move in. We are working for more parks, community centers, grocery stores and affordable housing.

It is discouraging for us to watch the ways that the real predators - corporate profiteers - are diverting attention away from their destructive ideology by scapegoating drag queens, trans folks, gender-affirming care and the way that "wokeness" somehow makes white children feel bad about themselves. The real problems that we see - in Detroit and everywhere else - are rooted in the maintenance of a human hierarchy of value that makes some people better than, or more deserving, than others.

If every one of us really is a child of the divine - nothing more, nothing less, no matter what - then it means that there's nothing more important than to make sure that everyone has access to what they need for a life that is safe, sustainable and fulfilling. Dr. King said we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. That's a radical conviction. If its true, then we ought to fight for a radical politics that protects and provides for the whole network. No matter what.