SALVE — For Some Soul Healing

a brief sketch of what the section contains and what it expects

“Although it might belong to Socrates and other minds of the like craft to acquire virtue by reason, the human race would long since have ceased to be, had its preservation depended only on the reasonings of the individuals composing it.”

says Rousseau. And I think, we agree with him. He also says —

“Compassion is a natural feeling, which, by moderating the violence of love of self in each individual, contributes to the preservation of the whole species. … It is rather in this natural feeling than in any subtle arguments that we must look for the cause of that repugnance, which every man would experience in doing evil, even independently of the maxims of education.”

In short, we live in a world of emotions and passions. And humans by nature are not reasonable animals, as we thought Aristotle said (as per a medieval interpretation of him) but we are irrational beings. We are animals of the polis, who have a faculty of reason, but who also have, what Freud later called the ‘unconscious’, the irrational part, which affects out thoughts and words without our knowing about it.

We should not forget this aspect of ours. And perhaps that is why the philosophers of being human (existentialist philosophers in popular parlance) have always found themselves keeping diaries. The diaries of Kafka and Kierkegaard and Lord Byron are well known. The list is, in fact, long and can be accessed here — List of diarists — Wikipedia. The world is full of such diaries and journals which were written for the express purpose of keeping sanity intact, to not just keep track of emotions, but to understand what is otherwise not understandable.

“One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.”

So Kafka says. And we agree with it. There are changes we undergo every day. A petty incident at the supermarket. A reading of a book. A meeting with a long-time friend. A private memoir which we want no one to read, but we do. We write only because we want to keep diaries. We want to keep diaries because we want to keep a log. Like Dumbledore had his Pensieve in which he stored his memories to revisit, we write in diaries so that we can revisit them and understand ourselves a little more.

This is a continuous process, and everyone does. Every poem we write is a diary entry. We write and write and we want the world to know what is going on within us, so when someone comes across what we are going through, and comments on it, we find a kind of peace, a weird sort of peace, by knowing that there is someone who gets us. In the end, we are all alone, and we don’t want to be.

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I have never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musing of a thirteen year old school girl. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I feel like writing and I have an even greater need to get all kind of things off my chest.

Anne Frank says. And that’s what we seek… for the section SALVE.

SALVE is the word we have chosen. The verb means ‘to soothe’, and comes from the Old English sealf “healing ointment,” which is what it is, if we consider it a noun.

We see it both ways. As a noun, as well as a verb. We seek to keep an archive of thoughts of people — common people out there, who are suffering, through pain or happiness, and read through them. We want to know what really goes on inside your mind. We want to dig into that subconscious of yours. And we want to provide you with a platform where you can get them read — those thoughts and questions which plague you. In other words, we want to this section to be a SALVE for you.

Consider it a HEALING SPACE. A space of mental health. A space where you can be naked in your soul and see the naked souls. Be honest, as blunt and as sharp as possible. Do not try to hide behind those words which always hide something from others. Be caustic or lovely or dreadful. Do not keep anything hidden.

Talk about yourself and your thoughts. But do not abuse others. Do not use hate speech. Every piece you submit will go through a basic screening process, in which we may include some editorial changes.

How to participate:

• Type SALVE in the subject line of the email or [SALVE | LITERARY IMPULSE] in the Medium submission.
• Email us as [[email protected]] or submit on our Medium Space [Literary Impulse], in which case please provide an email ID, so we can make an author profile. We want you to continue submitting to us.
• And yes, do provide us with a picture that resonates with your piece. A well-set image enhances the meaning of the words.
• But, please limit your entries to ONLY PROSE. This is a condition we have to put, because poetry is too personal, and we think diary entries and memoirs of the prose kind are more accessible, and hence can be better handled by us.
• You can submit those entries which you have published in other journals in the past, as well. Do not email the link of the medium story, though. Share those stories as .doc files according to the format suggested in our SUBMIT page.
• AND do not submit multiple entries at a time. Let us decide on the one you submitted.
• Check out the kind of submissions we are looking for her here: Salve — ShabdAaweg Review

Come, join us. Be a part of this new endeavour, which is intended to be a healing space, a SALVE. We invite you all, but tag a few we have known and enjoyed the stories of.

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” Wordsworth.

Jonah Lightwhale/ Samantha Lazar/ William J Spirdione/ David Rudder/ Jessica Lee McMillan/ Upasana Sharma/ Joseph Lieungh/ Pablo Pereyra/ Lee Ameka/ Dr. Preeti Singh/ Paroma Sen/ Jack Herlocker /Jessica Lee McMillan/ James G Brennan/ Tree Langdon/ Jenine Bsharah Baines/ Deborah Barchi/ Pierre Trudel/ Shalini C/ Iva Hotko/ Dr. Jackie Greenwood/ Vinitha Dileep/ Erika Burkhalter/ Ruchi Thalwal/ R. Rangan PhD/ Chris Mooney-Singh/ Eli Snow/ Joe Barca/ Era Garg/ Aparna Das Sadhukhan/ Sylvia Wohlfarth/ MDSHall/ Wolfie Bain/ Dr. Fatima Imam/ James G Brennan/ Saurabh/ Adam, Diabetic Cyborg

Yours emphatically,

Nachi Keta, Somsubhra Banerjee, Priyanka Srivastava & Elisabeth Khan