For content related to philosophy, ethics.
Recent events and commentary have led me to revisit and reprocess my personal experience of being the target of sexual harassment, something I have not spoken of for a quarter century.
I sigh every time I see the common but sadly truncated quote from Rilke “And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” It leaves so much unsaid.
The magic of poetry is that it simultaneously helps us remember what we experience and experience what we remember.
This past year I became a certified Green Dot instructor. Let me tell you why it is important to me - and should be important to you.
Since I retired, I have repeatedly been asked two questions. “How do you like retirement?” and “Don’t you miss practicing medicine?”
This week, waiting at a local hairdresser for my appointment, I had an unnerving experience.
Two women came in together and sat down. They were talking enthusiastically about the previous night’s State of the State address by Governor Lepage, pleased with how well he spoke and looking forward to some of his promises. At one point, one of the women said: “It’s too bad they won’t let him do what he wants. If they did, he’d get rid of all those Somalis.”
You are about to have the honor and great pleasure of working with a group of patients I have come to know and respect over the years. While I cannot tell you how to practice medicine, I feel no reluctance to tell you what made it so worthwhile for me.
A recent article in USA Today talked about Regina Holliday’s efforts to make the medical record more easily and promptly available to patients so it becomes as a tool patients use as they engage in co-managing their own care. Her cause is just and her story is compelling, so I was dismayed at the pushback saying: Not so fast.
What is True North for medicine? Is there an enduring core value that serves as a reliable touchstone across the nearly infinite range of medical activities? Given how medicine and society change, can there even be an enduring True North? If we have one, are we pursuing it faithfully?