Healer or Prostitute?

I am in Applied Ethics 430 this semester. We just read a letter Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote when he was a prisoner in the Birmingham Jail. He was arrested for purposely breaking what he felt to be an unethical law, very interesting if you haven't had a chance to read it.

Here is my first assignment: Suggest a current law you believe is unethical. Would you be willing to violate that law openly and willingly accept the punishment as Dr. King did, in order to change the law?

Rather than speaking of a current law, I am going to relate a story that happened to me in 1995.  I was a brand new graduate of the Utah College of Massage Therapy. As a Licensed Massage Therapist, I leased an office on Main Street in Provo Utah, printed business cards, and decorated my office.  It was a dream come true to own my own business. As a nurse and massage therapist I was set to work under doctor’s orders as I specialized in injury recovery from motor vehicle accidents and worker’s comp.  Just when I was about to open my doors for business, I found out a horrible realization. Provo had a law that stated you could not have a massage business in the downtown area. Needless to say, this was a throw back from an era when the medical benefits of massage was not widely understood.  Frankly, the law was to prevent prostitution. I was devastated. I couldn't relocate without breaking my lease, tossing my newly printed business cards, and saying good buy to an office I loved. What to do? What were the chances of me getting caught? And if I was caught what would happen? Would I have an arrest record?  Would I have to do jail time? Would they even care? Mind you, this was Utah in the 1990s. When I talked about being a massage therapist, most people did think I was a prostitute. So, maybe I would do jail time. Instead of it scaring me off, it made me mad. I thought the law was unjust and misinformed. I had no idea what kind of battle I would be up against, but I decided to get the law changed if I could.  Long story short, that’s what I did. Had I not been able to change the law, would I have been willing to do what Martin Luther King did? Maybe not then, but I sure would now. If I feel justified, I will stand up for what I believe and fight for it.

The problem as I see it, is what is just and what is unjust?  I like the examples Dr. King gave in his speech. He pointed out that the Boston Tea Party was a massive act of civil disobedience, yet we see it today as a brave act that helped win our freedom.  Likewise, he reminds us that much of what Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and sanctioned by many. I’m sure the fine folks of Provo would have been aghast if they knew I wanted to change a law that could promote prostitution in their city.  So, who is correct? And how do we decide which is which?

I especially like Dr. King’s example of healing the boil.  As a healer I have long used this example for emotional healing, it must be exposed despite its ugliness in order for it to be cleaned and exposed to the light of day - a tried and true method of any king of healing.  Martin Luther King states that like the boil, “Injustice must be exposed to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion”. I believe these conversations combined with critical thinking can lead us to know what is truly just.

And here is my response to someone else's post (Part of the assignment is that we keep the conversation going)

I appreciate what you said Courtney.  And I agree, Dr. King had a lot of important things to say about the poor that we so often miss.  It is such a shame that he died early. What more could he have accomplished had he been able to live?  Yet, thinking about Dr. King also brings up a consideration in my mind. Is the ethics of the messenger important or should we just focus on the message?  I do not consider Dr. King to be an ethical man. He states that a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. And he says that an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.  He goes on to say that any law that uplifts human personality is just and any law that degrades human personality is unjust. Again and again he refers to his Christian beliefs and the law of God. And yet he goes against his own beliefs in having extramarital affairs.  Personally, I don’t care if he is faithful to his wife or not, it’s none of my business. Unless of course, he is asking me to believe his words and talks about laws of God. I can’t help but feel that his wife and lovers did not feel particularly uplifted by some of his actions and words.  So, do I skip the ethics of the messenger and go straight to the message? What messenger is perfect, and what will I miss if I get mired down with imperfections? Yet, I find the words tainted. I am at a loss.

The crook of his elbow

For some reason, I woke to this memory.

I’m snuggled in bed, wound in a comfortable knott with my lover.  As I open my eyes my face is inches away from the inside crook of his elbow.  I tip my head forward so my nose gently presses against the barely creased skin and inhale deeply.  What is it about the scent of a man to which I am attracted? His pheromones are like a dose of an illicit drug that floods my body and makes me feel blissfully unfocused from head to toe.  I take another hit.

Asshole Island

Asshole Island

In my world vision we send all the assholes to Asshole Island.  I’m talking about the people who can’t or won’t treat others with respect while we attempt to do our human dance here on this planet.  They all must go, no questions asked. Then, they will have to deal exclusively with assholes. Will they end up killing each other off?  Most likely, but we won’t hear about it because it’s no longer our drama and we don’t care.

Will those of us who are left behind live a conflict-free life?  Of course not. But we will manage our conflict with clear, consistent, truthful communication, and critical thinking skills.  We will rejoice in diversity and embrace helpful change. Treating each other with love and human decency will be so second nature that we will forget that there was ever a world when these things did not exist.

This is the vision that I hold for my world.  

I was talking to a wise friend of mine about this post. She said, about the assholes that I describe, "You know, we don't have to send them to Asshole Island. They are already there."

So true! We are each in the world of our own making. Energetically, we attract to us what we send out. If I have assholes in my life, I simply need to stop being an asshole, do my healing work, and my naturally rising vibration will call to me those who have done the same. The assholes of the world will find me repellant, if they can find me at all.

A is for Amyotrophic

A is for Amyotrophic

Acronyms are tough for us dyslexic types.  Particularly the ones that leave a bad taste in my mouth; and especially the ones I want to shy away from and never learn.  My mom was just diagnosed with ALS last month. I have jumped in and lent my nursing skills, and my case management skills, and my teaching skills.  Grieving skills, I have none. Not healthy ones at least. So, I chug along and do the doing. And about those emotions? I’ve erupted in tears in the shower a few times, but that’s about as far as I have gotten.