...with a little help from my friends

We live in a town that is seriously literature-challenged. You can't buy a book in this town unless the library has a sale.

But that's ok. When the Universe thought I needed a book, my dear friend, Starwalker, happened to have an extra. She had two copies of a book called: Powwowing among the Pennsylvania Dutch.

I got this book on December 31 and skimmed through it a bit. It came to me that I was about to "meet" my great Uncle Pat.

All through childhood, I'd heard of Uncle Pat. But only in half-sentences. It seems his talents were to be whispered of, not spoken out loud. Though his cures were loud enough to be remembered long after he'd died. They were used in desperation by folks who couldn't afford doctors and who lived far from town.

Mom knew about asifidity bags to cure lung complaints and about using red flannel to wrap a poultice for healing bad coughs. She had the pestle he used to grind herbs and told me once, "That was my Uncle Pat's. That was for his.... his medicines." And then she changed the subject fast.

This same thing happens in the book. A lot of people were/are afraid of healing unless it comes with a pricetag and side effects and is approved by the AMA and the organized church.

If you follow the reasoning used, it would seem that big brother, Jesus, who spit in some mud and put this paste on the blind man's eyes, got his talent from the devil.

But I don't think my Mom and Grandma Hall believed Uncle's Pat's cures came from a dark source. I don't guess they reasoned it out very well. They would talk aslant, as if what they told shouldn't be mentioned. But when the need was there, those old cures came out.

As anyone can tell you, it doesn't really take a Powwower to cure an ill. All it really takes is a mother who loves her kid. And that healing power that had my Mom wrapping my feet in wool and salty dough to pull a fever down is something the AMA will never regulate, nor the church eradicate.

Thanks, Starwalker, for introducing me to my great Uncle Pat Hall with more than half sentences and whispered words of healing.