Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Marginal Notes: Lord of the Rings

 

Photo copyright© by Brian T. Maurer

 

I ran into Loering down at the post office.  His tall thin frame hovered over the long table by the window as he sorted through the stack of envelopes freshly extracted from his post office box.

 

“They’re taking down the big ash tree on Maple Street,” I told him.

 

“I saw them working on it this morning when I walked down for the mail,” Loering said.  “That’s the last one to go.”

 

“Last one?”

 

“The last of the original trees on that street.  Over the years I’ve watched them all come down, one by one...”

 

Loering's cloudy blue eyes danced in the late morning sunlight that streamed in through the front window.  >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

See the Patient, Not Just the Problem

Toronto Writer and Dermatologist James Shaw presents us with an important vignette.  Perhaps, it was Osler who said, "It's more important to treat the patient who has the disease than it is the disease the patient has."  One needs to bind this mot to one's forehead.  Physicians, nurses, therapists, patients and their families need to consider this.  Dr. Shaw's vignette makes the lesson indelible.

"The only window that opened was the short one with hinges across the bottom. It opened inward by pulling on the latch, like a mailbox. I gave it a pull, letting in traffic noise for a moment, then closed it.
It would have been difficult for Mrs. Whittier (name changed) to step up onto the radiator and squeeze through that window. But the night nurses hadn't noticed when, in the early hours of Saturday morning, she climbed onto the thin ledge and jumped to her death..."  Full Article  Download A reminder.

You can reach Jim Shaw at: Email. 

UPDATE: Cell 2 Soul Retreat: October 2009

Here is the latest information on our Fall Program.  If you plan to come and don't live here, be advised that this is peak foliage season so reserve early (local B&Bs at end of this page)

Dates:  Saturday Oct. 3 - Sunday Oct. 4

Mason Hill

Cheshire, Massachusetts

Walk, Work, Talk, Play

Emerson's words in the American Scholar inspire us:
“We will walk on our own feet;
we will work with our own hands;
we will speak our own minds."

On October 3 - 4, a small group of us will gather to celebrate the harvest season and the amazing autumnal color show with walks in the woods, great local food, a campfire and a varied educational program.  The participants will exemplify Chaucer's  mot: "And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."  John Muir's words also guide us: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

The syllabus is taking shape nicely.  Registration is limited as the Mason Hill facility can accommodate only thirty individuals.

For more information and a tentative syllabus and fees, please email Jim Johnson or Dave Elpern.  

Mason Hill Conference Center is situated in the rural town of Cheshire, Massachusetts.  It is a peaceful setting in the ancient rolling Berkshire hills; a site of great beauty that has inspired its denizens for millenia.

  

 

Tentative Schedule

Updated: July 1, 200

Program PDF: Download C2S 09 edt

Saturday, October 3, 2009: Happenings in Search of Vision
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Terry Anthoney
Otha Day: Musicographer
Jim Johnson:  The Barn is the Cure:
                 A Prostate Cancer Experience
Susan Kaplan: On Experience and Growth
Brain Mauer:  Walking with Thoreau
Peggy Rambach: Others' Lives and Stories
Reuven Sobel:   Humanistic Education for Physicians
Discussion:  Songs of Innocence and Experience
5:00 pm         Slow Food Autumn Dinner 
7:00p.m.        Campfire: Storytelling and Song 

Sunday, October 4   A Consideration of Loss and Grief
8a.m.        Breakfast on the deck
9a.m.        Jim Johnson... Introduction to loss and grief discussion
9:15a.m.    Bill Zeckhausen...
9:30a.m.    Deborah Alecson  (Lost Lullaby)
10:00a.m.   Two of David Elpern's patients
10:30a.m.   Michael Symons... (Social worker and Hospice Volunteer)
10:45a.m.   David Elpern...The poetry of Loss
11:30a.m.   Poetry Picnic at Reynold’s Rock
2:00p.m.    Return from Reynold’s Rock and free time at Mason Hill

To register, contact Jim Johnson: masonhill@verizon.net 
The fee will cover food and beverage, equipment rental, facility use. 
All participants will contribute equally. 

There are many places to stay in the area.  Two of the closest and nicest are:
Harbour House Inn in Cheshire
Berkshires-Shirakaba, A Japanese-American B&B in close-by Lanesboro

Invictus: The UnConquerable

by: William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,                                                                                         Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.  

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud:
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.  

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.  

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Marginal Notes: The Big Tree

Early in the morning the men came.  You could feel the house shake as the big trucks rumbled down the street.  The dog growled from the upstairs window and barked back and forth frantically, pacing through the parlor.

 

“The men are here to take down the tree,” my wife said.  “You’d better move your car.”

 

I slipped on my shoes, grabbed the car keys and hurried out into the street. >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Surgery's Next Revolution

Andy Tanji of Honolulu alerted us to a visionary TED presentation.

Most of us, at some juncture in our lives will have an assignation with a surgeon.  Stanford engineer and surgeon, Catherine Mohr takes us on a fascinating tour of Cutting from trephination to 3-D robotic body invasions.  This is a fascinating  journey led by an articulate visionary "cutting edge" surgeon. This 18 minute presentation will blow you away -- you will give it a standing ovation.

   

Father's Day 2009

 Our Big Island titta, Surfdoc, Shay Bintliff sent us her thoughts about this most all-important mercantile holiday.  Strangely, it applied to my grilling on that most sacred of occasions.

Thank you Shay, once again, for enlightening me!  Here are her wise words.

Aloha friends!! 
Sunday was Father's Day and the following is shared to shed light on the agust occasion: 
BBQ RULES!  Know it is HIS day,
This is to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ, especially on Father's Day, the following chain of events are put into motion:
1). The woman buys the food.
2).The woman makes the salad prepares the vegetables and makes dessert.
3). The woman prepares the meat for cooking, putting it on a tray with the sauces, cooking utensils and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill...beer in hand!
4). The woman remains outside the compulsory 5 foot exclusion zone where manly bonding activities will take place without the interference of the woman.
NOW THE IMPORTANT PART:
5). MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL!
6). The woman goes inside to organize the plates, glasses and cutlery.
7). The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat looks great. He says thank you and asks that she bring him and his friend another beer while he flips the meat.
IMPORTANT AGAIN: 
8). Man takes the meat off the grill and hands it to the woman.
9). The woman prepares all other food and brings it to the outdoor table.
10). After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
11) AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL... Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking expertise!
AND THE FINALE...
12).The man asks the woman how she enjoyed her 'night off' from cooking, but cannot figure out why she seems annoyed. 

Well... Hope y’all had a  HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

A hui hou... da midget

Little Tipplers

Strange Synchronicity. Mark White sent us this picture from his back yard on Kauai.  With some prodding he wrote: "Beezmic! not much to say, I just love to send a 'picture worth a thousand words.' Another thought I have when I view the world through a view finder or LCD is to express the wonder and amazement of God's tapestry of creation."

A few days after we received Mark's photo, I saw this cartoon on a desk calendar.

And then recalled the words:  "drunken bee" from the following poem:

Emily Dickinson

I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When the landlord turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!

Marginal Notes: Fathers' Day

Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son"

 

Although we e-mail one another several times a week, my friend and I see each other but once a year.  Once a year he travels from the southwest to visit his boyhood home and reconnect with his eastern roots.  Once a year during his week-long stay we plan an afternoon rendezvous in a small town nestled in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania.

Time, as always, is at a premium.  Only a few hours are allotted for lunch on the wide veranda of the antiquated red-brick inn on the square and a subsequent stroll about town, but the conversation is continuous as we jointly mine each rich vein that runs through the bedrock of our lives.  >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

It only hurts...

when you're not laughing.

The other day, I met Rabbi Bob Alper, a stand-up comic (Really!) and he reminded me that in addition to "humane medicine" there is "humor medicine." Laughter is often the best medicine."

Rabbi Bob directed me to a site that may help some of you who need a laugh.  It's called "Old Jews Telling Jokes."  The current joke is less than a minute long, but the dose of humor will last for hours.

On Cell 2 Soul, I don't think we've considered humor enough.  It's time.  Thank you, Bob.