Flash fiction is a genre of literature with the predominant characteristic of brevity; it can be divided into categories, including the drabble (100 words), “twitterature” (140-character stories), and the focus of this assignment, the Six-Word Story. One of the most famous examples of the six-word story, often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway, is: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” As described by Quote Investigator, “the reader must cooperate in the construction of the larger narrative that is obliquely limned by these words”2 – could it be sudden infant death, a miscarriage, or just a simple misjudgement of the baby’s foot size? I find six-word stories incredibly captivating in this way, where as a reader, I am not optional, but rather, essential to add context to the stories by weaving a background between the vagueness and extreme terseness. Another hallmark of six-word stories, though not mandatory, includes a sudden twist or surprise at the end3. Thus, the six-word story stands as a creative challenge to writers, where each word is carefully assessed for its value to be incorporated. I chose this medium because the brevity of a six-word story is somewhat analogous to the course of an illness – the sparseness allows readers to conjure context to a brief six-word story, much like how the holistic journey of a medical condition is largely determined by a patient’s decisions and perspective. Thus, this idea sparked inspiration for the direction of my six-word stories; I wanted to explore the dynamic balance between health and resilience, because they are often misattributed to be similar.
The current WHO definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity4”. There are a few major criticisms of this definition, including the implication of the diminishing “role of the human capacity to cope autonomously with life’s ever-changing physical, emotional, and social challenges and to function with fulfilment and a feeling of wellbeing with a chronic disease or disability”5, which I feel the concept of resilience encompasses. Drawing upon personal experiences, I find resilience is a multifactorial idea that is especially tested when our systems face a variety of stresses; Thompson provides a similar description through the concept of ‘latitude’, which is “the extent to which you can push a system before it is changed beyond the point of recovery to its original state”6. What I tried to do with each six-word story is depict an objectively reduced state of health, but show that with positivity, one can build upon personal resilience. A patient who truly embodied this concept was someone I met during a home-visit – despite the recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s amongst other medical conditions and the death of his wife two years ago, he had a strong determination to live. Upon asking what motivated him every-day, he responded, “Because I’ve enjoyed living life so much already, I want to continue. Of course, you don’t want to get old, and there are some things in life you won’t like. You got no choice in these things. But it’s worth it, don’t you think?” As a future doctor, I believe it is crucial to be aware of this balance between health and resilience – often, it is difficult to teach resilience to patients, as it should stem from their own personal efforts. However, by being more encouraging and positive, it could not only be beneficial for patients, but also for the wellbeing of doctors. Ultimately, we can choose whether we let the illness define us, or for us to define the illness, and so I wish to aid patients in achieving the latter via a more holistic care and integrative medicine. Thus, together with the attributes of flash fiction and the concept of resilience in adversity, I present my six-word stories. Below are brief descriptions of each one:
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a condition that causes increased filling pressure due to the thickening of the myocardial wall7 – in a very simplistic way, I depicted this as the heart ‘overflowing’ with blood. The optimism is within the phrase “my heart overflows”, which is a Biblical inference to Psalm 23:5-68 – the original phrase is “…you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” David describes how abundantly the Lord provided for him – a phenomenal picture of how God gives us everything we need and more, placing endless resources in front of us9. The message is that whilst life challenges your resources or faith in difficult times, realize that you have abundant provision from the Lord.
Stroke
This was inspired by American neuroanatomist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor10, who suffered a massive stroke in 1996 when a blood vessel burst in the left hemisphere of her brain. She lost the ability of speech, motion, memory, and self-awareness10, but she gained a whole new incredible perspective of life over the next eight years of recovery: “I realized what a tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how to live our lives. And it motivated me to recover.”10 I felt overwhelmingly inspired by Dr. Taylor’s experience, the ability to find light in a rapidly darkening world with an unforeseeable future – thus, in this six-word story, I wanted to capture how ultimately, vibrant positivity can give you “the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world”11.
Erectile Dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction is a stigmatized condition – according to Tomlinson & Wright’s12 qualitative study on the impact of erectile dysfunction, common initial reactions include “a sense of emasculation,” “a decline in confidence” affecting not just sexual relationships but also normal day-to-day interactions, and patients felt especially concerned about the impact on current partner relationships. I find that erectile dysfunction is often the basis of crude, sexual punchlines and thus wanted to bring awareness of the issue in a light-hearted way.
Asthma
There are often misunderstandings about people with asthma, labelling them as slow, sickly and weak – these stereotypes can be seen glorified in the media; for example, the asthmatic toy penguin Wheezy in Toy Story 213. With this six-word story, it was about lifting labels off the condition, because asthmatic people can be just as successful as non-asthmatic people.
Addiction
Often depicted inferiorly, addiction is a very serious condition – people with addiction are heavily stigmatized against, seen as “crackheads” with a lack of “willpower…or a moral compass”14. I wanted to show the interaction between a patient who requires help for their addiction and somebody willing to understand, whether it be a family member, friend, or doctor. From the perspective of the patient, whilst their addictive behaviour may cause conflict in aspects of their life, underneath they could harbour immense gratitude for those who stay by their side to help battle their condition as shown by the hidden message, “You are my hero”. I simply wanted to highlight the importance of not leaving somebody in their times of struggle and need, even if they may not express appreciation immediately, because a support system is incredibly vital for recovery.
Depression
This is about the concept of holistic healthcare, touching upon stigma against mental health issues. Depression does not render you inferior or mentally incapable, but unfortunately, stigma opposes this. However, negative connotations against depression are currently being battled against, an example being WHO’s one-year campaign, “Depression: Let’s Talk”15, but much more is needed. I believe it is very human to suffer from pain, and as long as stigma remains, so will the discrimination against those with mental health issues.