September 1, 2003

• Laughter is the Best Medicine

  So I'm on my pediatrics rotation right now. I absolutely love it. Children are amazingly wonderful people to be around, even when they're sick as hell. They are so hopeful, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has witnessed how amazingly nonjudgmental they are. They rarely jump to conclusions, and as a result, I think they tend to be much happier. There are some children who, through no fault of their own, are forced to learn to jump to conclusions at an early age. They are the "frequent flyers" of the hospital, and many of them (not all) need social workers' intervention.

  One of my patients jumped to the conclusion that he can leap from a table to a sofa as easily as Spiderman could. He came out of surgery yesterday, and is doing fine.

  There are so many people who get mad easily in the world. (I am one of them.)

  
  Typical Gaff Main Sail
  from John Leather's
  Gaff Rig Handbook

  Matt tells me it's because those people have "no sense of humor." Perhaps that is true.

  People jump to conclusions all the time. It's one way that we survive. If something injures us, we avoid it in the future. Sometimes people carry it further and avoid or condemn things that merely resemble something that injured them.

  I wonder how many people jumped to the conclusion that I agree with all of the "Native American" 10 commandments my last post. I don't, by the way. But I still liked some of them enough to post all of them. I don't always feel the need to post my opinion about things. But it's funny how people fill in the blanks for themselves.

  I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that anyone who has an abortion is a bad person. I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that anyone who isn't Christian is a bad person. I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that anyone who is Christian is a bad person. I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that if you didn't pass your driver's test the first time you will probably be involved in an car accident within a year of finally passing the test. I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that if you have cancer, your children will also develop cancer within their lifetime. I wonder if the policemen who apprehended that pizza delivery man with the bomb strapped to him jumped to the conclusion that it was a fake bomb. I wonder if the surgeon who removed that man's metastatic bladder cancer jumped to the conclusion that it had spread to his penis.

  I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that a 21 week-old fetus cannot survive outside the womb. I wonder how many people jump to the conclusion that a 21 week-old fetus is better off not surviving outside the womb.

  I wonder how many conclusions I jump to in a day. How many hurt me? How many save me? How many hurt others? How many save others?

  
  Michael Kasten's Modern gaff schooner, Redpath

  Maisie97 left a very insightful comment on my last post, and I agree with her wholeheartedly. She also posted a beautiful sailing poem.

  I visited her site, and found some comments to the effect that she was blocking phk975 from using her site because she thought he was stalking her.

  It turns out, he was using the xxreaderxx tag. Maybe you have seen xxreaderxx used. With a bit of HTML tweaking, it replaces xxreaderxx with the user-name of whomever is reading your post. It's kind of creepy. I saw it first on Queen_Asia's site, and I had to laugh, because it took me a while to figure out what was going on. Viewing the page source helps the confusion, but seanmeister actually has a webpage that explains how it is done, if you didn't figure out on your own.

  Is it unethical to use xxreaderxx? Is it unethical for Xanga to have advertisements that cater to the subject matter in your posts? Is it unethical for County Market to print coupons on your receipts that are for products you just purchased?

  
  Marlin style lacing. One method of attaching the sail to the boom.

  Is it unethical for me to memorize a patient's name on their chart so that when she comes into the clinic next time, I don't have to ask a second time? I'm sure if HIPAA had anything to say about it, we should forget everything we learned every day we work in the hospital.

  I would love to go sailing today, but it's raining.

  
  Roger C. Taylor's "Forth and Back" lacing for small boat main sails, as found in Knowing the Ropes, p. 87.

  • 8:18 am
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