An essay I received on “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” from a pre-med student has me thinking of the poem’s useful lessons for doctors. There are several.
Monthly Archives: June 2017
Women Who Refuse To Be Broken
There are certain poets who appear indomitable and, in their confident affirmations of life, inspire the rest of us. Lucille Clifton was one of these poets.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "won't you celebrate with me", Adversity, cancer, Lucille Clifton, Rachel Kranz, sickness Comments closed
Trapped in an Emergency Room
When a friend found herself suddenly trapped in a large metropolitan emergency room, Nabokov’s short story “Cloud, Castle, Lake” came to mind. It’s about a man who wants to leave travel tour and is prevented.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged cancer, Cloud Castle Lake, hospitals, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Lincoln Transformed Depression thru Lit
Melancholy threatened to paralyze Abraham Lincoln in his early years. Literature helped him give voice to his depression and taught him how to turn it into an asset.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Dream", "Raven", Abraham Lincoln, Depression, Edgar Allan Poe, First Inaugural Address, Macbeth, Manfred, unipolar disease, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Candide & the GOP’s Tax Obsession
The GOP’s obsession with tax cuts reminds me of the Baron’s obsession with his lineage in Voltaire’s “Candide.” No matter how much reality changes, he always insists on this one thing.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Candide, deficit spending, GOP, Mitch McConnell, tax cuts, Voltaire Comments closed
Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist
In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred Lord Tennyson, anti-war literature, Catch 22, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homer, Iliad, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace Comments closed
Watching McConnell Destroy Healthcare
Wednesday It’s so strange watching Mitch McConnell crafting a healthcare bill under a cloud of secrecy at the same time that everybody pretty much knows about the consequent disasters, beginning with the 20+ million who will lose healthcare. I feel like I’m in the position of the God and Jesus in Paradise Lost as they […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged ACA, healthcare, John Milton, Mitch McConnell, Trumpcare Comments closed
