“Thank you for saying very nice things.” -Kieran McCarthy
Tag: compassion
Sabbatical, Step 5: Present Tense
“I could help you, but it’s your fight.” -U2, “Get Out of Your Own Way”
Sabbatical, Step 3: Relax. Get a Plan.
“R-E-L-A-X. Relax.” -Aaron Rodgers
Easier said than done.
But I did learn how to do it.
Sabbatical, Step One: Catalysts and Enzymes
“If it’s all been said and done,
I did alright, I had my fun.
Let me walk, before they make me run.”
-The Glimmer Twins (a.k.a. Jagger/Richards)
Continue reading “Sabbatical, Step One: Catalysts and Enzymes”
Sabbatical, Step Zero: How to Plan Without Knowing That You’re Planning
“My parents lived on a very frugal budget. It was really irritating to me (as a child). I had no really proper vacations as a child. You wouldn’t believe some of the places we ended up. Even they (my parents) would arrive there and go, ‘Holy God! It looked better in the magazine.’” – Lewis Black (comedian)
Scotch Tape (a.k.a. I Have an Idea About How Lucky I Am)
“Of all the bad and dangerous ideas in the world, perhaps none is worse and more dangerous than the idea that there is no such thing as luck.” -Kieran McCarthy
Of all the bad and dangerous ideas in the world, perhaps none is worse and more dangerous than the idea that there is no such thing as luck.
-Kieran McCarthy
Continue reading “Scotch Tape (a.k.a. I Have an Idea About How Lucky I Am)”
Heart Block
Rule of Life 72: if your mother calls for health advice, act fast. Case in point, about 5 years ago my mom called with a health question on a day where I just happened to be off work. She was dizzy, tired, and having a hard time breathing. After a brief conversation that ended in “I’ll be fine, I’ll just lie down for a bit,” I drove over to my parents house. As it turns out, you can get a Prius to go from zero to sixty in 2 seconds, you just have push down really, REALLY hard on the accelerator.
We all have roles in life. Some are conscious, others subconscious. Sometimes, we fall into old roles and habits around select groups of people. We have tendencies, all of us. It’s not always bad or good, but rather something that just IS.
Quadrant of Frustration
What I’m going to talk about is probably more complex than a quadrant. There’s probably a Z-axis that I can’t think of (or don’t want to think about, because then it would go to a classification of 8 instead of 4, but I can’t visually represent that). Maybe I’m being intellectually simplistic, but y’all are just gonna have to DEAL WITH IT.
I was a Chemistry major in college. I went to a Liberal Arts school, so despite my science oriented degree, I actually have a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry. We used to joke at Knox (although I’m sure it wasn’t unique to us at all) that I “had a B.A., but it feels more like BS.” Don’t laugh, it’s not really funny.
An Open Letter to the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics
This is a battle worth fighting. We all know that this is an issue, and if it isn’t addressed, the risk is losing rolls of your pediatricians to other careers. Again, I’m familiar with this. We really don’t want a healthcare system that convinces its physicians, providers, and nurses that they are expendable and replaceable. We are on the verge of de-recruiting people from the profession. That’s not a great place to be.
Continue reading “An Open Letter to the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics”
Donut Diplomacy
I once asked one of the nurses, Sharon, if they liked me only because of the donuts. Her response: “No. If you were stupid or a jerk, we’d eat your donuts but talk about you behind your back. We like the donuts, but we like you.” That’s one of the best, most honest compliments I’ve been given.
“And on the seventh day, God rested. And said, ‘Let there be coffee. And let the donuts be plentiful. Let there be glazed donuts, and cake donuts, and long johns, and buttercream and custard filled Bismarcks. But there nay should be jelly donuts, as those are disgusting.’ And so it was. And as God rested, God said, ‘This is pretty good. Keep ‘em coming. And may I please get another cup of Joe?’”
Genesis 2:2, in the original Hebrew, or at least how it SHOULD read.
