Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Hans Rosling: 'Edutainer' par excellence

Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician became a pop-star statistician by converting dry numbers into dynamic graphics that challenged preconceptions about global health and gloomy prospects for population growth. He died on February 7^th at 68 of pancreatic cancer.

The topic of Global Health and Social Determinants of Health has interested us greatly.  It is covered in detail in Michael Marmot’s dense book, The Health Gap (that few will wade into).  Rosling’s work makes this information palatable and easily understandable.

See:  NY Times Obituary

Rosling, his wife and daughter founded Gapminder, an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious or economic affiliations in 2007. Gapminder is a fact tank, not a think tank. It fights devastating misconceptions about global development.

See Hans Rosling:  How To Be Ignorant About the World (TED 2014) 19 minutes.

Many more instructive videos are linked on Gapfinder.org.

Singing Into the Cosmos

The poet, Frank L. Meyskens, Jr., M.D., is a distinguished oncologist. His new book "Believing in Today" concerns loss, grief, and imagining one’s own death. Some of the poems deal with the poet’s own mortality and, such as the one featured below, were inspired by his father’s death. Others are reflections on aging and what looms ahead.

 

The Final Song

Once again we rushed to be with you
a long scary ride in the pouring  rain,
arriving at midnight ten hours later
exhilarated and exhausted.

You had been failing badly for several days
now gasping, eyes shut , becoming aware
of our presence when my brother began
to sing “You are my sunshine.”

Your eyes opened and in a strong voice
you began to sing, song after song,
and for an hour we sang with you,
you correcting us when we didn’t get it right.

And then you returned to wherever
you had been and for the next three days
you said your goodbyes, one by one,
as your friends and grandchildren called.

It has been nearly six weeks now since you sang yourself
into the cosmos, never will I forget that divine  moment,
my chest then heaving, my heart now aching,
my eyes glistening at the finality of that moment.

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