Painter Aaron Voronoff, a longtime reader of the Matt Lamb Blog, compliments Matt on his insights to the creative process and adds:
“I think when we realize that our art-making itself is the cathartic growing movement that illuminates and heals us, the art will speak in a higher language.”
Aaron goes on to relate the story of his grandmother’s uncle, Dr. Serge Samuel Abrahamovitch Voronoff, who became known for his efforts to rejeuvenate human libidos by grafting glands from monkeys onto human sex organs.
While the procedures did not become part of our enduring medical practice, they are a fascinating glimpse into the fringes of science and technology during the early part of the 20th Century.
A website that Aaron has created about his ancestor is at:
www.voronoff.wordpress.com
Matt responds to Aaron’s post as follows:
Dear Aaron,
A friend of mine from Florida was one of the first to have that monkey operation. He lived a long time. I think he was known as a Don Juan. I never saw him climbing trees, but he always was eating bananas...
Back in my buttoned-down undertaker days, I spent many hours on the beach talking with him about philosophy and other ideas. He was much older than I, but he seemed somewhat younger than his years.
Good for you for remembering your grandmother’s uncle and his life and times!
My mother was a historian, and my brother is a historian. They relish the intrigue of where we came from, in a different way than I do. They look for specifics; I look for generalities.
My mother’s four uncles were physicians. One of them did the first organ transplant ever performed in the world. It was a great honor to my mother’s family to have all of these learned people in the gene pool.
Regrettably, I did not benefit from that gene pool. I found it difficult to get into school, and once I got in, it was even more difficult to get out.
As my brother has looked back into our genealogy, so far, to everybody’s relief, he found a few horse thieves but no murderers or people hung for high crimes and treason. I suppose we were just the usual rowdy, drunken Irish people: hard-working farmers, fishermen, politicians, and great storytellers.
So your research and website, I believe, is time well spent. We should know where we come from. We should know the history of our forefathers.
That’s why I like what we’re doing here on the Matt Lamb Blog. It gives a true history of what I’m thinking about and doing, so it’s not left to others to fill in the blanks, according to their mood or what they’re smoking at the time.
Keep up the good work,
Matt