Opening Into Aletheia

• In Event: 43.068 - Fostering Relational Pedagogy: Self-Study as Transformative Praxis

Abstract

Sometimes cancer opens more than flesh – Aletheia - openings into expansive spaces. There are no guarantees but there are opportunities for layered, multi-vocal interpretations imbued with the flux of salt air, rushing waves, pebbles and my Grandmother’s tea-warmed breath. This hermeneutic practice deepened when I sat on a windswept beach with a paper bust, made in my likeness, the night before my breast cancer surgery. The incision, cut into my flesh, opened up places for memories, imagination and inquiry to grow. The result, a kinship of body-mind-spirit, a learning to understand me and my movement in the world.

Author

• Kathleen (Kate) Mary McCabe, Simon Fraser University