Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

The Overachiever's Simple Guide to a Sweeter Life

"Do you know what the difference is between an overachiever and a corpse? What the former calls his résumé, the latter recognizes as an obituary.

An overachiever believes that if he or she only looks hard enough, seeks diligently enough, reflects long enough, and suffers enough, that happiness and success will eventually come. The Overachievers Simple Guide is for those of us who have come to recognize the fallacy of this belief, and wonder, what now?

"This 25 page booklet is about everything else there is in life, aside from awesomeness and achievement. It is for the overachiever who knows some really awesome people, and exactly for that reason, doesn’t want to be them. OASG is not going to tell you anything you don’t already know. It is only going to tell you what you already know but haven’t yet heard. It is not meant for the fearless daredevil, those unique individuals who don't care if they die young or old, alone or among loved ones."

O.A. Chiever, an old friend, sent me a link to his book which is now available free or for 99 cents at the Kindle Store.  He wrote: "For fun, I have put together a few short essays into a 25 page ebook, which I've self-published and is now available on Amazon for Kindle. (If you don't have one, you can always read it online, or on your ipad/iphone)." 

For those of you who are interested, it's an amazing read.  Takes ~ one hour.  Get OSGSL If you want to read it, but dont have a Kindle, iPhone or iPad, write me and I'll see if Dr. Chiever can send you a copy.

Umbrella Man Conspiracy Theory

To mark the forty-eighth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, the Times has posted a short documentary film by Errol Morris “The Umbrella Man.” The film features an interview with Josiah (Tink) Thompson, the author of “Six Seconds in Dallas,” a micro-study of the assassination, and centers on the mystery surrounding a man who appears in the Zapruder film, standing in Dealey Plaza, just as the shots rang out. On a perfectly pleasant day, why was this man holding a black umbrella? It was a question that launched a host of conspiracy theories related to the assassination.

To read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2011/11/john-updike-jfk-assassination-the-umbrella-man.html#ixzz1eU8nqnzH

Happy Balloons of Bhutan

Jonathan Harris (b. 1979) makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other.  In late 2007, he traveled to Bhutan to research Happiness Bhutan-style.  He recently created Balloons of Bhutan which all of you will enjoy.  It is a labor of joy, love and celebration.

Mahalo, brah:  "Geev 'em!"  Balloons of Bhutan

Who was Elbert Hubbard?

I'd heard the name, but never pursued any information.  Then, I saw this quote:

Hubbard was an extraordinary individual.  To learn more about him see Wikipedia.

He and his wife walked the ultimate walk on the Lusitania.

A few Elbert Hubbard quotes.

Happy Chap Goh May La

Yesterday, February 17, 2011, began with an amazing light show.  The ancient gods performed their magic -- short lived but inspiring.  The day ended with another kind of "light show."  Williams College has a Winter Carnival and it is inaugurated with a fireworks extravaganza. La.

Strangely, the Williams event is roughly the same time as Chap Goh May, the 15th day of the Chinese New Year.  I am pretty sure none of the organizers knew this.  I found this description of CGM on a Malaysian blog, La:

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NooYear

year’s end, and all
corners of this floating world -
swept.

Basho

Notches in the belt of time... Different cultures -- different New Years

New Years 2011 (in alpha order)
Chinese: Rabbit  February 3
Balinese:  Nyepi - March 5
Gregorian:  Jan 1
Gujarati: Ist Day After Diwali
Iranian: Nowruz -- March 20 -- 25 -- 2570
Islamic New Year occurs on 1 Muharram - 1432
Jewish: Rosh Hashanah September 28 - 30 - 5771
Nepali: April 12 - 15

The Gregorian calendar is a Solar Calender

Many of the others are lunar calendars or variations of that.

and then, there's the analemma...

Illegal Lemonade Stand: Bizarre Beancounters

"Julie Murphy, a 7-year-old Oregonian, set up a lemonade stand on July 29 at an art fair in northeast Portland. County health inspectors shut her down, however, telling Julie and her mother, Maria Fife, that they needed a temporary restaurant license, which costs $120. The penalty for selling food without a permit, they warned, was $500. At 50 cents a cup, that’s a lot of lemonade."  See Article.

Spirited restive flea
   become a Buddha
      by my hand.  

Issa.

At Play in the Woods of New England

The year is 1977 and Art Brownstein, a Southern California surfer dude has just finished his first year of med school on the East Coast.  He recently resurrected the journal of his escape to the New England wilderness.  Much has changed in the past thirty-three years, but the fastness and fascination of these forests and mountains abides.

His chronicle begins: "At the end of my first year at Jefferson Medical School in Philly, I spent the night before summer vacation making a cardboard sign that said “Maine.”  I intended to hold it by the side of the road while hitchhiking, as I had planned a two-week solo outing to the woods of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to celebrate the successful completion of my inaugural year in med school. My initial destination was Katahdin, sacred Mountain of the aboriginal Penobscot peoples, northernmost point of the Appalachian Trail, and the first place where the sun hits the East Coast on its daily transit of America. Read on:  Download BarefootThe Woods Brownstein1 .

You can contact the author at:  Doc Art.

By The Sea: a boy, a dog

It's a beautiful time of year in the Northeast.  Mellow summer.  A  time when peace comes dropping slow.  Our friend, Joan Shaw, from the laid-back isle of Kauai, sent us a video that will have you smiling.  Lucas & Shadow Surf Session. It features Shadow, a Jack Russell Terrier, and his human bruddah, Lucas Angulo, a surfer-grom from Hanalei, Kauai, catching some tiny waves at Retros in Hanalei Bay.

Emily Dickinson has a poem, By the Sea which begins:

"I started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me."

Freud wrote:  "Where ever I go, a poet has been there first."  Who would have guessed it was the Maid of Amherst who also wrote?

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.

Way to go Shadow, Lucas, Emily too!!

Tsunnami Season

Just three months ago most of us were gripped with the thoughts a possible tsunami, A KILLER WAVE. It turned out to be a false alarm and now we have other (more ominous, but less immediate) concerns.

Larry Zaroff's essay "Tsunami Time" is a good reminder of how compelling the moment is, and how quickly we move on.

Five A.M., Sat Feb 27, 2010

The phone in the living room signals but not loud enough to stir the bedroom. A vague thought: I did not operate yesterday, no one is bleeding. Six a.m., the horn shouts, not in celebration. Every hour for the next five the tsunami warning braces the air bringing every molecule to attention. The instrument is 100 yards from our apartment. These sirens are in place all over the island, most close to the beach. They are not an orchestra. The pitch is the same, the noise cumulative, lashing out at birds, fish, bending the palms. I am staggered by the resonance, hearing the phone again in the distance. A retired doctor who lives on Kauai and his wife are calling us to higher ground. Esther says, “don't bike today, come to our house, I am going to the store.” (for supplies). We turn on the TV and learn of the quake in Chile and the oncoming waves, expected to be up to 15 feet, bringing along every rock, brick, wood, plant in the way. “Kauai prepare for the assault at 11:56.” Our rental condo is a heave away from the ocean, great view but not without its potential hazards. “Evacuate.  Evacuate now. Don't wait.  The roads will close. Poipu residents go the Koloa School. Bring food, water, flashlights, babies, animals, and valuables, enough for five days.”

What the hell are they thinking? All tourists eat out. The uncertainty, The uncertainty. THE UNCERTAINTY. No one knows for sure what the wave height will be. Our friends asks us to arrive at ten. Now is the time to find out what you value: we pack hard-drive back-ups, IDs, meds, extra underwear. I choose a book, Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I leave treasures: a fine white burgundy, a great Italian olive oil, my Stanford grad hat. I am not encouraged when an egret squats on our deck, 20 ft above ground. What has this bird in mind? I mean it can fly, theoretically above the waves. What can it know? When we drive to our house of rescue, the roads are naked, we do not sight another car. Cruising on the moon must be like this. We arrive at our new home, 250 ft above the water, are served cheese, bread, coffee, fruit while gazing at the distant beach. Nothing moves. The waves lap. The TV over the next 3 hrs reeks with excitement, which gradually diminishes as the waves refuse to obey the Tsunami Warning Center, and make at best, a token appearance. By 2 p.m. the Governor announces, “thanks to the conservative Republican administration Hawaii has been saved at no cost to the tax payer.” We express gratitude to our friends and go home to find my bike has a flat tire, a temple has fallen off my reading glasses, and our dinner planned is cancelled. Life is imperfect.

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