Worldwide Stew

Please be a Citizen and Vote

On November 3, United States citizens have the opportunity to influence our future. Not just for the next two years, but possibly for generations.

First, I ask you to vote. Ignore, please, the internal voices that say, My vote doesn’t matter. If it matters to no one else, it matters to you and your future. If you are a citizen, you can’t afford not to care, whatever your preferences are. Even if you disagree with everything this page says, I’m asking your to vote.

Replay Versus Reality

When Referees Can Hit Rewind

Though I’ve never been much interested in sports, I recollect the early days of instant replay. When a disputed play occurred, referees could review what happened and, sometimes, revise a call.

Was there a foul? Did the basketball shot leave the air in time to be counted? Did the baseball player’s foot actually touch home plate?

Instead of debating it in circles, instant replay offered something unprecedented: the option of seeing what really happened. Sports teams felt certain that calls of all kinds could be fairly reviewed. Initial referee decisions could be changed. At last, we’d have proof about who was right.

Make do with what you have

Imagine you’re asked to fetch a ball. Without arms or legs.

I’m sorry. I can’t. In fact, the very fact that you ask is is insulting and cruel.

But, is it possible we could, at the very least, contemplate working it out: how could I fetch a ball without arms or legs?

We’ll come back to that in a second.

Do animals play?

Yes, it seems some do. But, you have to take into account the definition of play. If an animal does something once, it’s likely a fluke. If the animal does it multiple times on it’s own, it’s possibly play. If the animal does it on request, it might also be play.

Having Teeth

I think I was unfailingly gentle with patients, let them rant, and tolerated their abuses. Eventually, their rant lost steam and we started to get to the core of their often legitimate frustrations. They might be directed at an unrealized hope for a dreamed of healing. Or, they might feel they weren’t understood. A pinhole in a balloon release pressurized air madly at first out of a pricked balloon. Then, the balloon eventually loses pressure and falls to the floor. That is often the way it is with our anger. For me and for patients. You just had to allow the progression of release without judgment.

The Obligations of Witnessing

Many years ago, I worked in a little religious school. One of the children could barely speak. She had many siblings. She came to school with bruises. One day she accidentally fell out of the car. I told the principal that we should report the situation. I was told that it wasn’t our business and that reporting them to government authorities wasn’t right. I still anonymously reported them. My employment ended soon thereafter. I guess suspicion that I had called Child Protective Services was enough.