Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Wild Geese

The wild geese do no intend to cast
    their reflection;
the water has no mind to receive
    their image. (zen saying)

Yesterday, I walked a lonely road.

High above, hundreds of geese, loud chevrons, were escaping to where? what?

Marginal Notes: Conversation in the time of digital communication

 

When I was a kid, every boy’s dream was to have a walkie-talkie. You could converse with a friend wirelessly within a reasonably close proximity—something much better than tin-can telephones on a string. Walkie-talkies morphed into cell phones, which eventually allowed the user to capture and send digital photographs and text messages. Nowadays such devices permit limitless access to online services—we surf the web, check our e-mail, capture digitalized documents, listen to radio broadcasts, and even view TV programs, as well as keep up the chatter with our colleagues and friends.

More and more, it seems that we spend less and less time interacting with our fellow human beings face to face, in the flesh.  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."

How We Read

William Golding commenting on "Lord of the Flies."

There have been so many interpretations of the story that I am not going to choose between them. Make your own choice. They contradict each other, the various choices.  The only choice that really matters, the only interpretation of the story, if you want one, is your own.  Not your teacher's, not your professor's, not mine, not a critic's, not some authority's - the only thing that matters is first the experience of being in the story, moving through it; then any interpretations you like.  If it's yours, then that's the right one.  Because what's in a book is not what an author thought he put into it; it's what the reader gets out of it.

This holds for books, poetry, art, music, movies, perhaps a walk in the woods or the great unfolding of a dawn or the canopy of the heavens.

Cholera and the Epidemic Blame Game

No good deed goes unpunished.  Thus, Haitians are pointing the finger at the United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal for bringing cholera to Haiti, it’s important to remember that the blame game for pandemics eventually involves everyone.

Donald McNeil, Jr. has an excellent article in the Sunday, November 21, NY Times called "Cholera's Second Fever" which is well worth reading.

Ageing II

Well Met
by
Peter Albertson

It was parents' weekend at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and I was sitting at the bar of Isabella's, my favorite restaurant, in nearby North Adams, nursing my usual club soda. The place was jammed, with perhaps a dozen or more people waiting for tables.  A woman and her three companions came in.  I can't remember two of that party; but I remember sharply the entrance of this youngish middle-aged, handsome, African-American woman and her daughter... to read more see Download WELL MET

Note:  Albertson, "alone and palely loitering" in the Berkshires, describes this chance meeting in poignant detail.  You will enjoy reading more. He can be reached at PA:Email.  

Ageing I

Tomorrow by Jane Butkin Wagner

I'm not sure who pulled away first. Our visits more formal, less frequent, less natural now.  I cannot hear my children. I choose to smile and nod, inappropriately, rather than ask again and again for them to repeat themselves, only to hear one say are you annoying me on purpose?   I try to be a good sport and laugh, too, when they dissolve into laughter because my response has been an answer to a different question.

I am not sure when I turned into the old lady, the one with slow steps, bad eyes, and failing hearing. Into the target of laughs and rolling eyes from my own children, from other people's children... to read more Download Tomorrow 

Author Bio:  Poet, Jane Butkin Wagner is a  native of Oklahoma City who now lives with her husband in Houston and Oslo. She has three grown children.

 

Marginal Notes: A Pupil of Picasso

 
Maya and the Doll by Pablo Picasso

In the Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Sherlock Holmes remarks: “To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.” Over the years I have taken keen pleasure in the art of medicine—and in the art of Picasso as well. 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."

A Tender Weed

Click on image to appreciate it's "amazing" nature

"I love the image capture process. 1st, I see something kinda interesting, then get a good angle to see it more clearly and click; then when it's on the computer screen, the exploration begins. Wow!, I'm so amazed at the intricacy of the world around us.: mark

This weed,called "hilahila" in Hawaii has flowers a few millimeters in diameter.  Few people see it so clearly since it is invisible in plain sight, it is "born to blush unseen."

A friend who saw this post directed me to Emily Dickinson on "Flowers."  Here's an amazing one:

How many Flowers fail in Wood --
Or perish from the Hill --
Without the privilege to know
That they are Beautiful --

How many cast a nameless Pod
Upon the nearest Breeze --
Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight --
It bear to Other Eyes --

Marginal Notes: Two Rivers, Two Towns

 

Manhattan skyline at night

That evening, after dinner, I stood on the second level of the Chart House restaurant and looked out at the city.  To the north the George Washington Bridge spanned the blackness; to the south lay the Verrazano Narrows, while directly across the water the city sat, sketched out in a thousand points of light:  clusters and strings of precious stones, like rich jewels in an Ethiop’s ear—brilliant diamonds, amber topazes, blue sapphires, red garnets.  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."

Bananas

by Frank Cavano, M.D.

Chair tilted, I sat with my back to the glazed winter window.

Max was not speaking, not with words, but the expression on his white, waxy face suggested that he was hallucinating again. What phantom was he painting now to flee life's harsh realities? The answer came quickly. Had I seen the man flying down from the sky, landing in the shrubs? Sighing deeply, like any doctor noting a loss of ground in his patient's mental status, I prepared to discuss with Max a possible increase in his medication. But Max, again speechless, pointed to the window with the certainty of a great hunting dog on point. I turned as I began to hear noises
outside: boots crunching snow, bodies pushing through shrubbery and whispers and shrieks that are emitted only from human mouths.

A patient had jumped from the top floor of the hospital. I gasped but then noted that the emergency medical staff was already on the scene and in high gear. Blood rushed to Max's cheeks now as a slight smile spoke of both relief and empathy.

Today, I had read too much into Max's facial expression and paid too much attention to his past history. Looking for symptom and sign and sweats, it was I who had not found “reality”. A familiar pearl from a favorite professor presented itself with a kindly wink: “sometimes, gentlemen, a banana is just a banana”.

PDF of Bananas: Download Bananas

Author Bio: Frank Cavano, a retired psychiatrist, writes poetry when moved by his own life experiences or by those of his patients. His poems and short stories speak to what he has learned about the healing process. They emphasize the importance of being there for those who are hurting, the importance of non-judgmental listening and the key role the Spirit can play in healing.  You may reach him at: [email protected]