Writers write
I am so grateful for your many heartfelt and touching condolences.
Thinking about the question of when to resume writing the blog, I think it’s a good idea for me to just plunge in – maybe not at quite the usual rate right away, though. I find that thinking about other things than myself and my own personal woes is a good distraction for me for a while each day.
Also, if you think about what makes a person want to write – and I certainly have thought about it – for most there’s an impulse to tell the tale. Although I’m not the most self-disclosing writer around – as you can tell from the green apple – I still feel compelled to tell what I’ve been going through or at least the part of it. So I plan to be adding some personal reflections on, for instance, how hospitals are run these days. I’ve had far more experience with that topic lately than I’d ever have liked.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us on any topic. Your writing is a balm for many in an increasingly balmless world.
I’ve had far more experience with that topic lately than I’d ever have liked.
I know the feeling. You are not alone.
I will look forward to hearing what you found in our hospital situation. I have had occasion to take my wife to the hospital several times in the past year — usually starting at the ER — and I can say I have not been impressed. I suspect I am not alone in that feeling.
Care for yourself, then by all means write. We all look forward to what you write.
I also have had more experience than I would wish for as well.
I’m suspecting that service has declined dramatically when the names started changing from Grace Hospital (where both my wife and I were born), Providence, Sinai Hospital, St. Jude, St. Joseph, (see the pattern?) to the Grace L. Ferguson Hospital and Storm Door Company, Corwell, Henry Ford East (North, South, Rochester, Troy), etc. I’ve heard it said often enough that the “shareholders need to make a profit”. When we were young(er), I don’t think the standard was how much profit a hospital (or doctor) could make. Shoot, I remember Dr. Marcot used to make house calls on his was home after office hours to check on his patients. Admittedly, that was the 1950s in a rural community, but still…
Maybe hospitals should go back to being non-profits.
So did Dennis Prager. I hope your experience was better.
Thinking of you everyday, Neo.
Yes Waidmann, Mrs X’s birth doctor, Dr Kelly,
From Allen Park MI, routinely made house calls. Alas, no more.
Distractions are so valuable in times such as this. Distractions that you enjoy. Something new is great too. If you can combine something new, and distracting, and also relatively sure to please; that’s excellent.
Glad to have you back!
If you want to compare notes on medical care, I would be happy to. My wife and I found out mid-June that both of our cancers have returned. Between my treatment and hers, we’ve spent countless hours, days, and weeks in and out of care.
Some experiences not so good, most pretty good, and some really exceptional ones.
take care of yourself.
thank you, Neo
Neo: “I still feel compelled to tell what I’ve been going through or at least the part of it. So I plan to be adding some personal reflections …”
Neo, I hope you won’t be offended by this, but sometimes I read your writing as if you were a virtuous, instructive character in a classic novel.
AppleBetty:
Elinor Dashwood/Ferrars?
Om: That’s really excellent.
https://historica.fandom.com/wiki/Elinor_Dashwood
Glad to have you back.
Confronting grief, people behave in so many ways. Some sit on a park bench and stare into space wondering why; others relapse into frequent sobbing; others host a wake. Throughout history, however, writing has often been a catharsis for those who like to write. And that writing needn’t be directly related to the cause of the emotional distress from which a writer is suffering. I have been a silent (non-commenting) visitor to your blog for nearly two decades, in large measure because your writing is thoughtful and generally introduces readers to important topics or discusses them in interesting ways. Whatever you write in this current time I am certain that your many readers will continue to find your posts insightful. (BTW, I have always liked your reliance on the ‘apple’ – very clever !!!)
‘The way hospitals are run these days’. Neo, how that resonates.
Executives in for profit hospitals are firm believers in the adage, “do more with less”.
I just deleted a long winded vent. This is not the time.
I hope that doing what you love will prove therapeutic to some extent.
neo:
You are a writer. You are here indeed, among other things, to tell your tale.
I leave you with Salinger’s challenge, essentially, to himself:
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Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out?
…
Keep me up till five because all your stars are out, and for no other reason.
–J.D. Salinger, “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction” (1963)
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You’re doing great, kid! 🙂
Writers write, and readers read.
Thinkers think, and leaders lead.
Talkers talk (at too much length).
Let your strongpoint be your strength.
I stopped keeping up with blog-friends’ personal matters after Gerard left us; the connection being broken was made more painful by our never having met, and being weak I chose to retreat. That was my error and I’ve felt it since.
What ever hurdle you are confronting, you have a sincere and energetic pulse of human kindness surrounding you. Please add mine to that and I apologize for my being selfish.
Very best to you and yours.
I’ve been diagnosed with cancer myself and have had 2 surgeries in the last month. I’m quite behind on this blog, so please accept my very late condolences. It’s tough getting older – the grief hits hard.