Where I come from, when most people refer to The Good Book, they are referring to the Bible. This is not true for my father, because to him, the Good Books are something else entirely. He describes a scene early in his career as a plastic surgeon, when he had taken his doting mother to… Continue reading The Good Books
Month: January 2014
Superstition, Karma and Faith
I have always been a mildly superstitious person. With a casual air, I will walk around rather than under an open ladder and I never wear opals since they are not my birthstone. I will happily pet a purring black cat then shiver when it runs across my path, and when I break a mirror… Continue reading Superstition, Karma and Faith
When Age is a Relative Thing
I remember when I was a medical student and an elderly patient would be admitted to the surgical service through the emergency room with a bowel obstruction, or a lung cancer, or blockage in the coronary arteries so severe that only a coronary bypass could save him. The students and residents would gather around the… Continue reading When Age is a Relative Thing
Curmudgeonly Me
I didn’t like my flu shot very much this year. Some years they hurt worse than others, and I haven’t yet figured out whether that depends on which nurse gives me the shot, or which strain I am being vaccinated against. This year was a bad one—within 24 hours my arm was so sore that… Continue reading Curmudgeonly Me
Primum Non Nocere
I don’t have much in the way of eyebrows. They were victims of too much plucking back in the 1960’s and when you do that, sometimes they don’t grow back. There’s a very nice woman in Solana Beach who shapes and darkens what I have left, infrequently, when I bother to think about it which… Continue reading Primum Non Nocere
Ring Out The Old
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring… Continue reading Ring Out The Old