Sunday, March 12, 2023

Poor Doctor or Poor Artist?

Finding the beauty in your humanity and the humanity in others without judgment or contempt is good for your soul and your mental health

By Quentin Steen, Representative/BC Member Education Coordinator

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the circumstances, I’ve found myself 30,000 feet in the air numerous times this past year sitting next to humans I don’t know.

To be honest, I have no interest in speaking with them unless they’re encroaching on the space I purchased, which included baggage but certainly not their head, shoulders, arms, or any other appendage that migrates into my sacred aeronautical space.

I’m sure the feeling is mutual.

One of the most efficient ways to avoid conversations you wish you never allowed yourself to get sucked into (for whatever reason) is to occupy the time by watching movies. So, I’ve watched many a movie this past year.

Last October, while en route on a flight across the globe, was no exception. The third movie I watched on that flight, The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai, a Japanese film with subtitles, caught my attention and served as an inspiration. It’s rare for me to watch a movie with subtitles, but the subject matter for this movie was of specific interest to me: samurais.

The Pass is directed by Takashi Koizumi and is based on the book Touge by Ryotaro Shiba. In the waning days of the Tokugawa shogunate, the warrior classes were split in two.

One army wanted to keep the shogunate in power while the other bowed to imperial power. This led to the Boshin War, which changed Japan’s history.

However, the samurai Kawai Tsugunosuke (played by Koji Yakusho) chooses to abstain from the war while taking steps to find a peaceful resolution. The scene that caught my attention was a profound exchange between the samurai and a young artist about the importance of finding beauty in our humanity and the humanity in others without judgment or contempt—no matter how messy it can be.

Samurai: You are a gifted artist. Hone your talents as you see fit; that is what is most important.

Young artist: I shall.

Samurai: Scenery is beautiful; try humanity too.

Young artist: Humanity? Do you mean people?

Samurai: Train yourself until you can see the humanity in a person’s face. Faces are the window into the secrets of the souls of all great men.

Young artist: Faces show the soul’s secrets? All right. I shall try.

Samurai: However, a poor doctor may pass as genuine, but a poor artist cannot.

This small interchange holds a vast amount of wisdom, healing, and hope if we allow ourselves to take advantage of the opportunity that presents itself to us in the narratives of people’s lives.

For the most part, we are all born with a blank slate. Unfortunately, for some of us, that slate can be quickly marred by the circumstances that we are born into.

Humanity (you, me, and others) is filled with beauty even amid pain and brokenness. The question is about something other than what we do with it but what we believe about it.

How do we hold the tension between the beast and beauty that resides in ourselves and in others? This is a challenging task. It takes openness, empathy, and curiosity.

It may be helpful for you to know that on a neurological level, it’s impossible to be judgmental, which leads to contempt, while being curious, which allows for an empathetic heart.

The science here is simple: judgment and curiosity cannot coexist.

And this is precisely where the wise samurai (our wise self) gently calls to the young artist in all of us to hone their skills.

It is easy to judge a book by its cover. It’s another thing to open those books (the stories of others and yourself) and seek to understand the soul behind the story.

But by doing so, we learn to connect to the windows of the soul behind the face. And that changes everything.

The next time you see a face that triggers something in you, don’t create a story moored in judgment, but ask questions instead. You might find it helpful and healthier for your soul and mental health.

I’ll leave you with a final thought, if you’re not there yet. We all want to be seen, heard, and accepted for who we are, our authentic selves, and not what we want others to see. It’s exhausting to live that way. But it’s what keeps us poor doctors instead of poor artists.

Quentin Steen is a certified mental health first aid instructor for the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Get your BRAIN right and your MIND will follow!

4 Mental Health Resources to Help You

If you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health issue, CLAC has a number of resources and interactive tools available to help you at My Health and Wellness.
Stronger Minds features videos and quick reads from mental health experts, activities to help you gain resilience, and ask-an-expert videos in response to questions.
WellCan offers free well-being resources to help Canadians develop coping strategies and build resilience to help deal with uncertainty, mental health, and substance abuse concerns.
Wellness Together Canada: Mental Health and Substance Use Support provides free online resources, tools, apps, and connections to trained volunteers and qualified mental health professionals.

Poor Doctor or Poor Artist?

4 Mental Health Resources to Help You

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