CROSSANS ~ Hellraisers of Castlemilk

Farewell

	And until we meet again, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. And rains fall soft upon your fields.   Until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand. May you live as long as you want, And never want as long as you live.           Farewell   The wind is fair, the day is fine, and swiftly runs the time. The boat is floating on the tide, that wafts me off Fiunary.   A tear falls inside, into the sea and its tide of emotions that wax into my heart.   And the sea with this tear hears  My sorrow, Feels the fear of a heart torn. A thousand, thousand tender ties, Awake this day my plaintive sighs, My heart within me almost dies.       With pensive steps I often strolled Where Fingal's castle stood of old, And listened while the shepherd told, the legend tales of Fiunary.   I'll often pause at close of day Where Ossian sang his martial lay, And viewed the sun's departing ray, Wandering o'er Dun Fiunary.   A tear forms in the fabric of my soul,   left untended and in the dark- lest the breeze of healing comes.   It awakens the dreams and memories of home & childhood,    CELESTIAL TRAVELERS -- CROSSANS JOURNEY'S END       And in those dreams, we are walking hand in hand to a place,   where once again we shall embrace.   Always With My Love, Karrie     Unforgettable   Farewell,  My Loves   In Loving     Memory     My Mother & Father Rose & James Crossan Edward Crossan James Crossan Ronald Crossan Carla Crossan Mary & Margaret Crossan & the rest of the Crossan Family     I love you     The Crossan Lads   The whole lot of ye-     Ronnie   More of a brother than an uncle.    My Brother, Brett Still on Earth but afflicted with that scourge known as Schizophrenia. * Sadly, the brother I knew died some twenty years ago. Keep Him Safe, Love Karrie     It is by loving & by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another.        George MacDonald Scottish writer           Fear gu aois, is bean gu bàs.   A son is a son until he comes of age; A daughter is a daughter all her life.                     Tá mo chroí istigh ionat. My heart is within you.                     Cha d’dhùin doras nach d’fhosgail doras. No door ever closed, but another opened.                   Last (wo) Man Standing.   What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.   ~George Eliot             Born: 3/26/1859 A.E.Houseman   "Schizophrenia cannot be understood without  understanding despair."      R.D.Laing (Ronald David), Scottish Psychiatrist  (1927-1989)   Radical Psychiatrist   R.D.Laing   Mary Barnes     "Whether or not we admit it to ourselves, we are all haunted by a truly awful sense of impermanence."  Tennessee Williams     Born March 26th   1911  – I share a birthday, a sibling with Schizophrenia, bouts of depression,  and a love of storytelling with this legend.    Tennessee Williams   Tennessee_Williams   Contact Our Voice ~ Click Here: National Alliance For the Mentally Ill (For more information, click on the following links):   R.D.Laing, Scottish Psychiatrist (1927-1989) Controversial Psychiatrist   Ronald David Laing's Views on Madness R.D.Laing         * Schizophrenia Schizophrenia (in Greek, “split mind") is a severe mental illness  characterized by a variety of symptoms including but not limited to: loss of contact with reality auditory hallucinations  “hearing voices” bizarre behavior disorganized thinking disorganized speech decreased emotional expressiveness diminished  contact with reality diminished to total social withdrawal. Schizophrenia afflicts approximately one percent of the world's population, making it the most common psychosis. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive and negative symptoms. Fundamental symptoms include thought disturbance, withdrawal, and difficulties managing effect. Secondary symptoms include perception disorders such as hallucinations and grandiosity. Symptoms may also be non-schizophrenic in nature, including anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic symptoms.   Schizophrenia         Using a classical syllogism to make a point:   ·         Mental illness requires a mind. ·         There is no such thing as a mind. ·         Therefore; there can be no such thing as mental illness.   Therefore; since actor Tom Cruise, that leading authority on psychiatry,  doesn’t believe in mental illness, I guess that would make him a fucking mindless idiot!         My Brother's Story   5/14/2006   If a movie star was to say cancer treatment has no scientific basis and hurts people, everyone would be outraged.  We should be similarly outraged by Mr. Cruise. Every time we pick out psychiatry to discredit, we are really hearkening back to the dark ages and before. We all need to be more scientific and more up to date. There are many sources for good information, including our own National Institutes of Health, universities from coast to coast, advocacy associations composed of people with mental illness and their family members -- all of whom have credentials. It is a terrible disservice for a person without such credentials to Rant and Rave and to tell other people to stop taking their medicine.   Tom Cruise is misguided when it comes to health and medicine. Psychiatry is no more a pseudoscience than acting is a pseudo-profession. It's possible that living his entire adult life in the business of make-believe has led Tom Cruise to pretend that he knows more than he actually does. Psychiatrists, just like all other medical specialists, do save lives.   “…Tom Cruise also stood by his earlier criticism of actress Brooke Shields for using medication to treat her postpartum depression, suggesting that she should have relied instead on vitamins and exercise.” (June 2005)   Mr. Cruise, I do have a bit of knowledge and experience with nutrition, vitamins and exercise in relation to mental illness…my other grandfather was…     The 'Grand Daddy' of the Health Food movement Jack LaLanne and my Grandfather   The first course of action taken in the treatment of my brother’s illness was a combination of vitamin therapy and psychiatric care. When his illness escalated into a series of violent and ”life-threatening” situations,  psychotropic medication (Haldol) was finally administered.  Although it is not a cure, the medication does work.   In the past 25 years I have known many, many psychiatrists, but there was one doctor who had the best description of how psychotropic medications (i.e., Haldol, Thorazine, Navane, Prolixin, etc…) work on a schizophrenic mind. He explained it in the form of an analogy.  I met him during the beginning stages of my brother’s illness…   Picture a small transistor radio inside the head of a schizophrenic, or for that matter, imagine a radio inside your own head.  Now imagine that radio is turned on full volume to some talk radio station where all you hear 24 hours a day, 7 days a week are voices.  The medication cannot turn that radio off, but it can lower the volume on the radio so that the only voice heard is that of your own.     The real world, Mr. Cruise, the REAL WORLD…     Between Brothers and Sisters   We share private family jokes.  We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys…  1986 - Los Angeles - My brother Each day the voices were growing louder... He threw himself at the oncoming car with such force that his body smashed into the windshield and bounced down the highway like a ragdoll... I'LL BE THERE!       SPLISH, SPLASH! How do I COPE with STRESS & DEPRESSION??   I LOVE SWIMMING! NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAMING UNDERWATER!!              “We’re all MAD here”    A story of the Scottish Psychiatrist, R.D Laing. His life story and his extraordinary work with his patient, Mary Barnes.   “Laing was invited by some doctors to examine a young girl diagnosed as schizophrenic. The girl was locked into a padded cell in a special hospital, and sat there naked. She usually spent the whole day rocking to and fro. The doctors asked Laing for his opinion. What would he do about her? Unexpectedly, Laing stripped off naked himself and entered her cell.    There he sat with her, rocking in time to her rhythm.  After about twenty minutes she started speaking,  something she had not done for several months.   The doctors were amazed. 'Did it never occur to you to do that?' Laing commented to them later, with feigned innocence.”   Laing remains a highly enigmatic figure. His work tends to be dismissed by most psychiatrists; however, droves of mentally ill people insist that this was a man who truly understood how they felt. Laing did not appear to so much preach a doctrine as live it. His self-destructive tendencies and mood swings are well documented. In 1989, he died of a heart attack at the age of 62, his health ruined by years of depression and alcoholism. "Overall, physicians are more than twice as likely as the general population to kill themselves."       Psychiatrists are not invincible A journey through madness by both the patient and the doctor.  Click here:  http://www.katetheshrew.com/wereallmadhere National Alliance For the Mentally Ill When we remember we are all MAD, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.   Mark Twain    Goin' Out Of My Head Over You