In my time there went a woman begging about this Cittie, who had a Coffin carried with her, and oftentimes she fell into those Hystericall fits, and would lye so long in them, nothing differing from a dead carkasse, till the wonted time of her reviving. Hence it may * be came the Proverbe, Thou … Continue reading When Nurses Can’t Call a Doctor
Learning to Die
All my life I have been surrounded by things I'd rather not know too much about, so I have come to feel that truth made naked without purpose is really a wanton. The Kraken Wakes, John Wyndham Since we're all going to die some day, we might consider imagining as sooner than too late imagine … Continue reading Learning to Die
Stealing Food To Feed the Worms
I don't need no food, no water, Lord, cuz I'm running out of time|Fighting, killing, wine and women going to put me to my grave Uriah Heep, Stealin' I'm happy when one of my hospice patients in impoverished nursing homes steals food. There's life in him yet! Double portions anyone? I doubt he'll eat twice … Continue reading Stealing Food To Feed the Worms
On Nurses Taking Fake Vacations
No hospice nurse on my team is visiting their patients this Monday, the busiest weekday. I see several want visits because I'm reading work emails. I read work emails when I'm not scheduled to work despite being reminded not to. Also, I read the text messages that come from my patient's families. One rigid guy … Continue reading On Nurses Taking Fake Vacations
An American Drive To Escape
Late into his sensitive essay about American literature, Wendell Berry describes an escapism fault line that he thinks betrays the integrity of Huckleberry Finn's ending. After re-reading Finn and considering Berry's point, I thought some more about all the American literature I've read and still read. An American impulse of escape certainly ends Mark Twain's … Continue reading An American Drive To Escape
We (Don’t Really) Honor Veterans
Nationalists do not venerate veterans. They venerate veterans who read from the approved patriotic script. America is the greatest and most powerful country on earth. Those we fight are depraved barbarians. Our enemies deserve death. God is on our side. Victory is assured. Our soldiers and Marines are heroes. Deviate from this cant, no matter … Continue reading We (Don’t Really) Honor Veterans
Dying, Procrastinating, and Other Provocations
What, contemplating mortality again? Oh, please. Leave that to the sad Ancients. They had no internet, TV, 24/7 ramen delivery. Consider their literature? Come on, no one outside of Academia is reading Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Plutarch, or even secondhand sources like Montaigne. Could you imagine something from Marcus Aurelius in an election mailer? Political Trash … Continue reading Dying, Procrastinating, and Other Provocations
An Idea Is Not A Practice
Ideas get us into trouble. Even good ones. From this blog's subject file, I find several ideas that have caused and continue to cause me trouble once I reach out to realize them. Consider ideas about love, marriage, physical fitness, or weight reduction. What about meditation, representative democracy, hydrocarbon, or tech dependency? Or consider economic … Continue reading An Idea Is Not A Practice
DVTs: One Good Leg To Stand On
"Surgery is past and medication is finished. The only things to preventing blood circulating blockage now is exercise and compression stockings. Or, once a clot comes (typically, at one leg), slowly help move the blood along and treat for pain and pray no strokes or lung clots." I texted this to somebody whose mom is … Continue reading DVTs: One Good Leg To Stand On
On Body Shame: When You “Would Rather Die!”
How Seeing Leads Sneeches To Desire I stand and assist on the clean side of a 90-year-old woman with late stage 4 cancer who, in her home hospital bed, is being turned toward me. Meanwhile, I try calming her 70-year-old son who is swearing. His curses string along, and they come out loud. He is … Continue reading On Body Shame: When You “Would Rather Die!”
Hospice Nursing 1 Day at a Time 