TRACY DUBIN, MA
Tracy Dubin is a psychology and neuroscience researcher, lecturer, essayist, ethicist, recent graduate of the Clinical and Translational Research Ethics Fellowship as well as the Interprofessional Education Fellowship both at the Medical University of South Carolina, and a postgraduate of each, the University of Southern California (BS, BA) and the University of California at Irvine (MA). A current journalist, she adores writing and has multitudes of publications forthcoming, ranging from scientific articles on ethics and brain stimulation; to memoir pieces of personal, romantic musings; to zeitgeist-filled essays reflecting contemporaneous topics of import. She loves philosophy, pedagogy, critical theory, and literary criticism.
Having worked as a suicide and crisis counselor and a dedicated familial caregiver to her now-deceased relatives, she knows a thing or two about life – everything of which, she has learnt from observing death. They are two sides of the same coin. May we polish both faces with dignity.
You can read her academic research projects and presentations on ResearchGate at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tracy-Dubin, and personally converse with her by emailing TDubin2170@aol.com. She will be elated to network with you! She welcomes lectureship opportunities, speaking engagements, and creative collaborations.
“Memento Mori”
(Film)
To me, equating death with joy means a life well-lived: we do not fear death if we have experienced life. Want for more time diminishes as satisfaction has been fulfilled and reality’s hourglass pours. This butterfly flutters on a pillar juxtaposed between Venice, Italy’s main hospital, Ospedale SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and its adjacent astonishing church, the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo. While watching the insect do nothing more than be itself, I wondered how many passersby prayed in that church for more time for themselves or their loved ones to live without sickness and with authenticity. I wondered if they waited too late to pray for the latter. It is something I never hope to do, and something I wish for all in return. For “memento mori”: now is the time, now is the moment. The world transpires while this video captures it, in opposition to a vanitas but sisterly because the butterfly’s movement instills a paradoxical stillness of contemplation. The trick is to meticulously note and celebrate life’s unfolding while also being its catalyst. Pause to watch, reflect, and take in beauty, memorizing moments of perfection; but also stir as you sit, since there’s more to do, to see, to obtain. Strive not for a life half-lived.