The Peace in Chaos: A Memoir in the Form of a Collection of Essays

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2011

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature

Advisor

Ozzie Mayers, English

Abstract

This thesis is a creative project focusing on an illness within my family. In August of 2009, my father became sick with septic shock and survived. When first developing this project, I wanted an answer. I wanted to know what saved my dad from septic shock. This collection of essays was my attempt at answering that question. Within my essays, I examined the power of prayer, community, relationships and medicine within the experience to try and determine what allowed him to survive. Interviews with doctors, nurses, friends and family, personal experiences, and research all gave me insight when searching for an answer to this question. However, in the end I found that science and spirituality merge within the illness experience and both play a part in a person's survival. My essays reveal how illness equally affects both the human body and human spirit.

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