Gardening in Clay : Reflections on AIDS / Ronald O. Valdiserri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valdiserri, Ronald O., Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (128 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Writing both as a physician fighting the spread of AIDS and as a brother living with the loss of his twin to the disease, Ronald O. Valdiserri faces the epidemic with clarity and compassion. Gardening in Clay is the testimony of a doctor who saw AIDS emerge from the remote pages of medical journals to become the killer of his own brother. In a sequence of brief essays reflecting on personal loss with unprecedented insight into the social circumstances of the AIDS epidemic, the author illuminates a path from private anguish to public urgency.Valdiserri's observations about the blindness offear and prejudice surrounding AIDS in the United States need to be heard everywhere. Deeply aware of the worth of each life sacrificed, he writes with conviction about the emptiness of viewing illness as a failure of individual responsibility, about the necessity that AIDS be perceived as "our" disease rather than "theirs," and about the validity—and the power—of rage.Against the suffering caused by AIDS and the added cruelty of widespread victim-blaming, Valdiserri weighs the promise of natural renewal. He writes of his dying brother's last garden, a place where strength and courage could be rewarded with life and beauty. And against the temptation to lose hope in the fate of the enormity of the problem, Valdiserri raises a vision of healing. He likens the battle against AIDS to the struggle of gardening in soil filled with clay. If we continue to learn from each bitter loss, he believes, with every season there will be new growth.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Weeds

Garden Memories

About My Brother

Organic Chemistry of the Spirit

The Epidemiology of Anger

Changing for the Better

Pieces of the Puzzle

Studying Disease

Social Mythology

Suffering

Horror Movies

Science Fiction

Patience

Icebergs

Seeing Things as They Are

Down There

Memento Mori

Afterlife

Potsherds and Dinner Plates

Touch and Comfort

Second Chances

Remembrance

Family Values

My Father s Bakery

The Language of Flowers

Gardening in Clay

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

1-5017-3905-0

OCLC:

1178769409