Tag: compassion

Longview

The recent happenings in the United States Senate illustrates the point. We had two sides completely talking over and around each other, and a president with a need for attention that rivals a spoilt toddler. I fail to recall a “debate” where so little was actually discussed about the problem(s) at hand. The debate was disjointed, much like Kevin Pollack performing a Christopher Walken impersonation. It would have been funny had we, the people, not been held up in the middle of it.

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Ringing the Peace Bell in Duluth, MN.

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Empathy and SVT

But experience adds an extra level of understanding. Your mind might believe it, but shared experience makes the GUT believe it.

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Sonia with Andrew in his “wizard” outfit in winter 2005-2006.

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Dear Leaders…

You have a mirror. Use it. Please engage in some healthy and regular introspection. Please do so when things are going poorly and doubly when things are well.

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Ice skating with my wonderful niece, Audrey, on an outdoor rink in Sacramento, CA. That last part wasn’t a typo, and I’m as surprised as you are.

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What Chocolate Tastes Like

Even as an attending, I relied heavily on our nursing staff to lean about what we could do to help patients, and how to do it more efficiently. I was constantly learning from the nursing staff and leaning on their expertise.

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I had a little help writing this piece from our pet parakeet, Louie. She’s an albino parakeet, and a good companion for writing.

“Try to tell them about it, they’ll stare at you with those big round candy eyes. They won’t understand zip. It’s like trying to tell somebody what chocolate tastes like.” -Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

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Bootstraps

Your success is not predicated on another person’s (or group’s) failure. Success, compassion, and mercy are not finite propositions.

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Me encouraging my good friend Dennis Fricks at the 1999 Midwest Conference Cross- Country Championships in Monmouth, IL

How did I get to this point? I consider myself to be “successful”. It’s fun to look back and try to figure out where all the forks in the road were. Now, I’m able to laugh at all the possibilities that maybe were not real possibilities. I’m amused by the “decision points”. I was going to be, in no particular order:

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