Image Gently
“Relationship is not a project, it is a grace.”—Thomas Moore in Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship (HarperCollins, 1994), p. 256.
My friend, Marilyn Goske, also a pediatric radiologist, spearheaded Image Gently’s campaign to decrease radiation to children in diagnostic radiology. This organization encourages physicians to use the least radiation when performing tests on children. It applies to conventional X-rays, fluoroscopy, interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, computed tomography, dentistry, cardiac imaging, and imaging in the setting of minor head trauma.
In addition, the organization aims to make physicians, technologists, and nurses aware of the amount of radiation used and the importance of reassuring parents about their concerns. This educational program involves communication with all those directly involved in these studies and all medical organizations that support them. It has had overwhelming success, with over 1.9 million pledges participating in this program.
Marilyn shows us how to change the world by communicating and dialoguing with all people who share a particular interest. It involves trying to solve a problem, talking together, working together, celebrating when answers come, and honoring those bringing the vision to reality. In this way, we see the power of community.
I realize how important this could be in our spiritual lives. We find more answers to our spiritual questions in community, whereas often, we cannot understand our concerns by ourselves.
I remember meeting with my spiritual director, who helped me understand a dream that had baffled me for days. Each day in the early morning, I return to the dream and uncover another insight, as though she and all those who have taught me about dream work are still guiding me.
We also have many parts of ourselves: inner masculine, inner feminine, the child within, and so many more. They reveal answers when we see them as helpful voices, rather than unwanted adversaries, especially coming from the weaker parts of ourselves. It is in our weakness, in our vulnerability, especially in community, that God the Holy Spirit creeps in and helps us discern a path—where before we saw only a jungle.
In community, we image gently.
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/