Choosing the world we live in

06/26/15
Lately I have been giving a lot of thought to the nature of the world around me.  It seems to me we experience our world entirely through stories.  (Even our own subjective experience of the five senses is understood through the context of what we have heard or even the story we have created to explain it.)

We tell stories of the past (we call them history), we tell stories of our own lives and daily experiences, and we tell stories about the imagined future, often called science fiction. The weaving of these stories helps us communicate with others, and even helps us understand ourselves. Sometimes we even edit those stories to position ourselves in a better light, or to manipulate others into a position favorable to ourselves.  So, even when untrue, the stories we tell become the reality of the world we live in.

Lately a frequent lament, from myself and from others, is that the world has its priorities wrong.  That we should have bake sales for bombers and funding for education. That this transition of most of the wealth to the top 1% is an imbalance.  We grouse about the circumstances, and we wonder how it happened.  We sadly mourn our closing museums, lost historic structures, threatened ecosystems, and shrinking literary world. Sometimes we write a blog, or sign an online petition. Other times we meet up at the cafe and have fiery discussions about What Went Wrong. A few of us become politically active or give money to charitable foundations to swing the tide back. Even fewer of us stop shopping at chains, cut up our credit cards, and limit ourselves to local products we can obtain from a walk or a bike ride.

But it occurs to me, that to actually make meaningful change, the most important thing we must do is to tell stories.  Instead of telling stories about how much money a leading sports player makes, we can tell stories about how much love a janitor shows her family. Instead of telling stories about the most profitable companies, we discuss the manager who made sure his sick employee kept her job. Instead of telling stories about the boy who had a mentor who kept him out of juvenile prison becoming a successful businessman, we can tell about the inmate who maintained a healthy relationship with his children despite the prison bars.

WE get to pick. WE tell the stories. WE can choose to live in a world that honors wealth above all other things--or we can choose to live in a world which honors kindness, trust, family and love.  I know it sounds silly and impossible, but think of it--what if our stories insisted that kindness was more important than wealth?  

Questioning the annual pelvic exam and thoughts upon effective and efficient delivery of health care

This is the best and most thoughtful of the articles I have found on this interesting and important news item.

Efficient and effective delivery of health care is incredibly complicated.  Doctors strive to provide a balance between over-testing and under-testing.  You might think over-testing is not harmful, but it can be.  First of all, it costs patients extra time and money, secondly it can cause unnecessary stress when further tests show that the first test results were simply a benign condition or in error.

"Dr. Westhoff and colleagues wrote in January 2011 in The Journal of Women’s Health, “Frequent routine bimanual examinations may partly explain why U.S. rates of ovarian cystectomy andhysterectomy are more than twice as high as rates in European countries, where the use of the pelvic examination is limited to symptomatic women.”"

Furthermore, requiring a pelvic exam every year, even when a pap smear is not necessary, or before a birth control pill prescription can be written, can serve as a barrier to people who have fear or embarrassment regarding this intimate exam. These patients either experience added stress and anxiety over the visits, or just will not go at all, even forgoing obtaining birth control pills.

The article concludes with a thoughtful reminder regarding how our doctors are compensated for their work. Rather than implying they want to do unnecessary exams to pad their pocketbooks, perhaps we should consider that the current system of paying per procedure rather than for the time they spend with their patients is neither efficient nor effective. This to me seems in away to be the crux of the issue because many of the responses from doctors which were favorable about continuing annual pelvic exams were really about the necessity of establishing a relationship of trust, and the opportunity to talk to their patients regularly about healthy lifestyles, before symptoms of illness are found.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/an-exam-with-poor-results/

"Of Bonfires and Effigy Burning"

Today is November 5th, and for us Brits this marks a special event that occurred this very night in 1605.

"The Gunpowder Plot" was an attempt by desperate Catholics to blow up the English Parliament along with the ruling monarch, King James I who had reneged on a promise to put an end to the persecution of Catholics. 

One of the Conspirators, Thomas Percy, hired a cellar under Parliament and filled it with 36 barrels of gunpowder and plenty of wood and iron bars, enough to seal the fate of all seated above.  The event was planned for the 5th November when the King would be in attendance and cause maximum effect.

Unfortunately for the conspirators, one of their members sent a warning letter to his brother -in-law urging him not to attend Parliament on the 5th. Given that spying was widespread and messages were intercepted on a scale that even the NSA would be proud of , the game was up for the plotters. A search of the building revealed the explosives and on November 4th Guy Fawkes was arrested as he entered the cellar. The remaining conspirators were either murdered , imprisoned or executed shortly after.

November 5th was designated by King James I (via an Act of Parliament) as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance." 

Guy Fawkes Night is not solely a British celebration. The tradition was also established in the British colonies by the early American settlers and actively pursued in the New England States under the name of "Pope Day" as late as the Eighteenth Century.

Although no longer a public holiday "Bonfire night" or "firework night" is still celebrated every year with the lighting of fires and burning of effigies of Guy fawkes, accompanied by much drinking of mulled wine and firework displays (probably not the safest combination!).

The biggest event takes place in the town of Lewes (known as the bonfire capital of the world) , not far from where I live. Here they celebrate the failure of the Gunpowder plot and commemorate the memory of the seventeen Protestant martyrs from the town burnt at the stake for their faith during the Marian Persecutions.

 There are six bonfire societies putting on five separate parades and firework displays on the 5th, and this can mean 3,000 people taking part in the celebrations, and up to 80,000 spectators attending. Each society marches to its own fire site on the edge of the town, where there is a large bonfire, firework display and burning of effigies.  Photo link

This year I will be celebrating from the warmth of my fireside and watching the fireworks from neighbour's gardens as I raise a toast to "poor olde Guy"  :)

Today beside the fire

Today as we mused beside the fire I learned about Jethro Tull. I thought it was just a clever band name, but thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that he was a real person in the 18th Century. Tull was someone who believed that scientific ideas could be applied to agriculture and so developed new tools which helped start the British Agricultural Revolution. Tull had been born into a family where he had the advantage of a good education, and travel, he was influenced by the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment.  If you have not ever thought too much about how ideas travel through society, he might be a good one for you to look into.  The British Agricultural Revolution is a juicy topic being where crops from the "new" world like potatoes, the Scientific Revolution, and Britain's transformation into a powerful nation all come together in complex and interesting ways.

As our conversation naturally moved on, we discussed the experience of reading a beautifully written novel. I usually read for the story and am forgiving of weak writing if the story grips me.  But sometimes I have stumbled across writing so eloquent, so concise, or so clever that I suddenly realize that my experience is even more rich.  To that end, I was recommended a novel, The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, so I am going to give it a try. My usual genre is Science Fiction, or Mysteries, so I recommend The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman; and The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King.

That's all for now, back to the fire. :)