It’s been a happy and moving week in my world, full of reconnection with old souls and new kinds of feedback. This is because I finally started telling the truth.
My high school alumni magazine was curious about Arts Practica, and, because they were most familiar with the 14-year old, braces-mouthed-nerd who hid out in the art room, they were particularly curious about why I do the work that I do – and how Arts Practica came to be.
It’s a milestone for me because it’s the first time I talked about my family’s experience with misdiagnosis (with their permission and outrageously wonderful support).
There’s a lot of talk about the costs of misdiagnosis, which is estimated to take up to 200,000 US lives per year, and estimated waste around $765 billion yearly. My family’s here to verify: yes, the costs are tremendous. One of the more subtle costs was that I believed untrue diagnoses; I saw my sister all wrong, for too long.
This is why I care so much about how people learn to see. I have been lucky to be able to couple it with one of the great gifts of my life: access to art. What a wealth of information in the visual arts about how we perceive (and change perception of) the world. And what a wealth in the medical education literature.
With thanks in my heart for my family and for their sacrifices.
