Navajo world view and more
I won’t pretend to be fluent in the Diné world, but I’ve dipped into the perspective in a book group offered through the Undergraduate STEM Development division at Brown. The book is Native Presence and Sovereignty in College by Amanda Tachine.
April is the cruelest month
The first line of T.S. Eliot’s poem the Waste Land which explores brokenness and loss in the U.S., England, and Europe at the end of the first world war.
Leaping into. . .
Grief and sorrow are my topics for this leap year day. I have much to be sad about these days. I doubt that I am alone.
Meditation on the Middle East
I acknowledge the suffering in other regions in the world, such as the Ukraine and Sudan. Caring about friends, colleagues, and students I know in Palestine forces me to focus there.
Faced with the tragedy, now well over 100 days in length, which may rapidly be expanding to a much larger conflict, I ask myself what more I can do?
Putting a face on what is happening in PALESTINE — Gaza and the West Bank
When I was glum or sad, and feeling forgotten because I wasn’t in some clique at school, my parents reminded me to count my blessings. Doing gratitude sometimes necessitates understanding the challenges others face. A childhood (and often adult) exercise to recognize how good I have it.
Mutually Assisted Destruction
It is painful and nerve-wracking to watch what is happening in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank. I feel a moral obligation to do more than sign petitions for a ceasefire, write my representatives and senators in Congress and keep up with my colleagues in Palestine. My colleagues on the West Bank, where I worked just a year ago, are living under tight constraints. Their cities shut down for days at a time after local attacks. Unable to leave their homes, they cannot go to work and their children are not in school. Going outside to play is impossible.
Hearing about the Horror
The Middle East is horrific these days. The PBS News hour seems to give the most unbiased reporting. . . suffering and loss for all sides. I want to do more than write my representatives . . .
More military support is NOT the answer to Israel/Gaza
The response to Israel/Gaza must be nuanced.
Yet Another electronic health record
I have lost count of the number of different electronic health records I have used in my career. When I started it was only the paper record, the SOAP note, the numbered diagnoses and their associated plans written out in blue or black ink on lined white paper.
The US a war zone?
The Palestinian physician, who I mentored as a medical student, while I worked in Nablus during my Fulbright thinks so.
Celebrating summer
Summer is in full bloom here on Narragansett Bay. It is a lovely time to celebrate nature, the utter beauty and awe
Reminders
There is a lot to be sad about in the world, the US, and my personal sphere. . . I am guessing you may have similar tales these days.
Perspective
It is refreshing to see my world through the eyes of others. I know I have a privileged life here in the US. I am educated, the right skin color, have enough money to live in a “good” neighborhood, and have the freedom to go where I wish. Or another way to say it is WEIRD . . .
Culture of Respect vs. Culture of Burden
It is final presentation time in the Communications in Health Care class I teach. Throughout the 14 weeks, students complete parts of the project: Interview two people in their sphere about their experiences in health care.
Communication and patient safety
I am embarrassed to admit that it was a cardio-thoracic surgeon in Hebron, Palestine, who reminded me about the importance of including patient safety in discussions about health care communication.
Reflecting on Russia and Palestine
Thirty years ago, I traveled to the Former Soviet Union as part of a Women’s Leader exchange and later I hosted a group of our Russian counterparts in Minnesota. It was a different world in 1992 . . .
Tides and uncertainty
Tides change twice daily here on Narragansett Bay with roughly 6 hours difference between the high and low tide. The height of the tide, measured in feet is determined by thephase of the moon and the moon’s proximity to the earth as it moves on its elliptical path.
Tis the season of gratefulness…
I am thankful for all that I take for granted:
Living in a war-free area of the US. My recent 2 months in Nablus, Palestine, reminded me of the gift of not hearing drones and military planes flying overhead night and day. And to live in a US neighborhood where I am not afraid.
Life’s Ebbs and Flows
The violence in Nablus and Palestine has decreased with the conclusion of the Israeli election and the olive harvest. Borrowing from Reed: “it has been a cauldron of simmering conflict, oppression, resistance, protests and sporadic violence whose origins go back a millennia or more, but whose wounds are as fresh as yesterday.”
Lockdown
Fourteen checkpoints block the exits out of Nablus. As I write this we are on the 10th day “under a tight Israeli siege.”
Israeli forces instituted “Break the Wave” two months ago, a crack down on Palestinian militant groups who are too young to remember . . .