Musings

Has it really been two years? Well, no sense describing where I've been... no-one in there right mind would ever want to go there.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” - John Kenneth Galbraith

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school. These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

-From All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

“ Then there is the other kind of Christmas with present piled high, the gifts of guilty parents as bribes because they have nothing else to give. The wrappings are ripped off and the presents thrown down and at the end the child says—”Is that all?” Well, it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick. ”

- John Steinbeck 1959, Letters of Note

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are."

-- W.Somerset Maugham

I suggest that one day a week should be dia de la muerta instead of one day a year. Who doesn't hate Mondays? We can kill Monday, and on that day do the work of the dead, serving the dreams they left unfinished, caring for those they left behind (which is of course All of Us), feeding the hungry, doing Good. Well, I like the idea so it's my Thought For The Day.

While we're on the subject of great British Thinkers...

Bertrand Russels 10 Commandments of Teaching

Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

It wouldn't be a bad 10 for politicians and theologians either.

I lived through my hospital experience, no thanks to Brigham and Womens in Boston. It was an absolutely horrible experience filled with errors, missteps and at times simple incompetence. As usual in such situations, the people with with the least power were the most likely to show some interest in helping you stay alive. I feel very lucky to have gotten through it. More later on this issue... I'm still in a lot of pain.

My experience in hospital went very Strangely indeed and not well. The surgery wound up getting put off till Monday but I still spent 2 days in the hospital, for no reason other than poor case management on the part of everyone involved. In a couple of days I will be going back, and may the Goddess help me when I do. Our health care system is truly and deeply dysfunctional, and no matter how amazing and miraculous the various parts of it can be, the whole combines into a badly broken machine that only functions haltingly and at incredible expense. I've always thought my dissatisfaction in my encounters with it was due to being at a too-small hospital, or that I lacked insurance. Now I have just come away from one of the supposedly best teaching hospitals in the country, with full insurance, and was appalled at the inefficiency, the indifference, and poor communication I saw. Wish me well, because need dictates my return in 2 days.

I'm going in for some life-threatening surgery in a few hours. If I don't get to come back in here and post an update by July 2012, chances are I have shuffled off this mortal coil. I'll miss some of you, and most of those know who you are and how I felt about you. The rest of you can fall off a dock. Later!