The Big C

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Walking

Walking in my shoes is such hard work sometimes.  I tire and resort to sitting, shuffling on my ass, rolling or sometimes, undulating across the floor.  I like it.  It gives me a whole new point of view....oh, I say to myself, so this is what it's like to be three feet tall!  Sometimes, when the locomoting gets to be too much, I take a chance and try walking a mile in my own shoes again, only to find that they are sooo uncomfortable.

The leather is soft, worn in and a perfect rust-brown hue; but somehow, by the end of my short walk, I end up writhing again from the inevitable, undeniable truth: Walking in my shoes is such hard work.

 

Know Thy Self

I believe, at forty-seven, I have finally arrived at a place where I am comfortable to be Me.

I know that this is a bold statement, but I have always suffered, like most people I believe, from a certain amount of anxiety around how I was presenting myself and was being perceived.  I've always worried and thus spent a lot of energy pulling my punches around others.  I no longer feel the need to do this anymore.  It's incredibly freeing; a whole new perspective on my life.

I know that many people in the world come, through various circumstances, to have this same sense of self very early on comparatively.  I have come to this place of comfort now.

Gnôthi seauton -- The Greek maxim often meditated on my poets and philosophers, puts it very succinctly -- Know Thyself!  I don't claim to have reached this point and I hope I am never arrogant enough to claim this.  No, this feeling --  sense of comfort -- I feel is different: It is a form of feeling grounded, a sense of living in the present fully, with no thought of worrying.

Except in the many instances when I am careful about treading lightly in order to avoid hurting peoples feelings or for the sake of simple human politics to achieve a greater goal; only then, do I now feel the urge to hold back my opinion or choose to simply say nothing.

Derek Walcott's poem, "Love After Love," which I placed in my wedding program thirteen years ago and have hung on the wall of my bedroom since, speaks about ones love for self:

The time will come when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

It is by no means complete: this process.  But it feels like I have reached a plateau.  I have arrived.  I have finally found a comfortable seat and am ready to feast.

Alanis Morissette's song, " " comes to mind.  Here are the last three stanzas from that song:

the moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
the moment I jumped off of it
was the moment I touched down

how bout no longer being masochistic
how bout remembering your divinity
how bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
how bout not equating death with stopping

thank you india
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence

One of the Minarets at the Taj Mahal

The Taj makes everyone's pictures look good. I took this pic on my last/first trip to India.




Click on the pic for an enlarged view.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Agra, India

Test Post of Pic

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tarah Update and Other Stuff

Tarah Update: Juvenile polyps (the kind Tarah had) are usually benign. We won't know for sure until lab work is completed. It is not uncommon for kids to have a single polyp as Tarah did. Thanks to all for your concern and good wishes. Tarah returned to school on Wednesday and is doing great!

Smoking Cessation: I am on day 38 (I think). Which is a good sign,  that I am no longer counting.

Surrey Place Centre: Love working at Surrey Place...the atmosphere is adult and professional. Managed to snag an office of my own thanks to my manager for pushing for me. I have made it home and have had many jealous visitors come by. Plan on having an office warming party with delicate little finger foods that require lobster forks to eat and ginger ale in plastic wine glasses from the dollar store. Classy, no?




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Tarah's Scopes at Sick Kids

Tarah's long awaited appointment for a colonoscopy and a endoscopy was today. She has been great for preparatory part of the scopes. It involves drinking a strong laxative with no food for over 24 hours. We arrived at the hospital at 8 a.m. And spent most of the entertaining ourselves with walks, drinking lots of fluids, walking around the hospital and sharing quality time in the toilet. Tarah went into the procedure room (the operating theatre, if you're Indian) at 3:45 p.m. Assuming that I wouldn't be needed immediately, I went downstairs for a cup of coffee only to be called back to the fourth floor to talk to one of the doctors in the procedure room. It turns out that Tarah has a large polyp in her colon and the good doctor wanted my permission to cut the damn thing out (polypectomy). Yes, I say, yes. Cut the fucker out! I am writing now to pass the time and let my two loyal readers updated. The polyp they found was large (a little smaller than a golf ball). So, polyp removed, biopsy done and am now waiting for Tarah to come out of her sleep.

Bananas and Monkeys

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done round here.

And that, my friends, is how company policies are made.

Source of article: and here's an interesting link

Philips Sonic Care Gives Good Service!

Last week, our rechargeable toothbrush for kids by Philips began vibrating very loudly and the shaft, which connects to the toothbrush heads, was coming loose.

Now I know this is not earth-shattering news, but, I figure when you encounter good service that you should acknowledge it in any way you can.  It is why I have an account with TripAdvisor, Yelp and I always send a quick e-mail when I receive particularly good or bad service.

The toothbrush cost us close to $100 and has been worth every penny.  Having had to revert to the manual toothbrushes, I can honestly say that the sonic care brushes help me to make sure that the kids teeth are as clean as they can be.  Anyways, I spoke to an client service rep. via a chat client and within 5 minutes of giving the rep. the serial number and my personal information, I was told they would send a replacement handle and it would reach us within 5-7 days!!  Now that's service!  So thank you Philips for a great product and great follow up service.

This is the second such article I have posted recently:  My last bout of adulation was for SimpleHuman.  It seems that when you go with a product which is well made to begin with, even though price may initially seem exorbitant, it actually pays off in the long run.

Hurray for consumerism!

The Last Nail and Other Goodies

 

Source: MakeUseOf.com

Dr. Duane Sewell

My wife's cousin and our friend passed away on November 26th. Duane was an ENT Surgeon and a cancer researcher, but more than this, he was gentle, brilliant, kind-hearted, a great father and, as I've written before, exemplary in every way. And this is not only the kind of praise one doles out at the death of someone...but it is heartfelt and true to the last word. Marsh and I will both miss Duane greatly.

I have appended below an obituary that appeared in the Baltimore Sun recently:



Dr. Duane Anthony Sewell, a highly regarded head and neck surgeon and researcher who was also a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, died Nov. 26 of gastric cancer at his Mount Washington home.


Dr. Sewell was 44.


"I can't think of anybody who better exemplified what it means to be a physician than Duane Sewell. He combined excellent surgical and research skills, and making his patients extraordinarily comfortable," said Dr. Kevin Cullen, director of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center.


"His illness came as a complete shock because he had been so vibrant, and it went too fast," said Dr. Cullen. "He was part of a strong team, and Duane's death is like losing your quarterback. He was a critical and revered member of the team, and now it's going to be a real challenge for his patients, care and research."


"Duane was a brilliant physician, and his brilliance I'd argue was defined by his incredible passion for his patients and a burning passion to investigate the unknown things we didn't know about the biology of cancer and how it impacts us. He was excellent in both arenas," said Dr. Mohan Suntha, associate director of the Greenebaum Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.


"There has been an outpouring of emotional response to the impact of his death by his patients, colleagues and those he trained. … That will be his lasting legacy," said Dr. Suntha. "We've lost a tremendous colleague and friend. Duane's death has moved us all in a unique way. He was a man who was blessed with both intellect and curiosity."


Dr. Sewell, whose father, Dr. Trevor E. Sewell, was a psychologist and former dean of Temple University's School of Education, and whose mother, Fay Barbara Sewell, was professor of mathematics at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania, was born in Milwaukee. He was 7 when he moved with his family to Abington, Pa.


After graduating from Abington High School in 1985, Dr. Sewell earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1989 from Harvard University.


He briefly contemplated a legal career but decided to pursue medicine.


"I think Duane was driven by his desire to help people, especially underprivileged people. That was a big factor in his choosing medicine, plus he was good at science," said his wife of 15 years, Dr. Catherine Sewell, a gynecologist and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, whom he met when both were students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.


After graduating from medical school in 1994, Dr. Sewell completed a surgical internship at Union Memorial Hospital in 1995. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1995 to 1997.


He completed a residency in 2000 in the department of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and from 2000 to 2001 was a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania.


From 2001 to 2002, he was a head and neck surgery fellow in the department of otolaryngology at Penn.


Before coming to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2007, Dr. Sewell was an assistant professor in the department of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Pennsylvania, and was also a staff surgeon at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center.


"He was extremely soft-spoken and humble," said Dr. Cullen. "We all respected his thinking and his final word enormously. He was marvelous at unraveling extraordinarily difficult situations."


"Duane was able to balance his career and at the same time be an incredible family man. I'm willing to bet that his wife and children were the most important thing in his life, and he made his patients feel the same way," said Dr. Suntha.


"From the moment they were diagnosed with cancer, he understood the challenges of the diagnosis and wanted to make sure that the patient and their family were taken care of," he said.


"He was wonderful at calming them, and the bitter irony was that he had to deal with his own at the end of his life," said Dr. Cullen.


In an email Monday to staff members of the Greenebaum Cancer Center, Dr. Cullen wrote: "Duane's compassionate yet commanding demeanor instantly (and rightly) put all of his patients at ease, be they an ambassador with all possible privilege or a homeless person clinging to any hope. He saw them as equals and provided them the best care possible."


At the end of his life, Dr. Sewell, while technically on leave, maintained an interest in his work and research, said his wife.


He wrote many journal articles and abstracts. He also was section editor of "Comprehensive Overview of Otolaryngology," published in 2003, and was the author of several book chapters.


His professional memberships included the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, American Association of Cancer Research, American Head and Neck Society and the American Association of Immunologists.


A physically active person, Dr. Sewell was training for a triathlon when his cancer was diagnosed.


"He enjoyed camping, and reading African-American and sports history," his wife said.


He was an avid Eagles and Phillies fan.


A memorial service will be held
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Dr. Duane Anthony Sewell, a highly regarded head and neck surgeon and researcher who was also a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, died Nov. 26 of gastric cancer at his Mount Washington home.


Dr. Sewell was 44.


"I can't think of anybody who better exemplified what it means to be a physician than Duane Sewell. He combined excellent surgical and research skills, and making his patients extraordinarily comfortable," said Dr. Kevin Cullen, director of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center.


"His illness came as a complete shock because he had been so vibrant, and it went too fast," said Dr. Cullen. "He was part of a strong team, and Duane's death is like losing your quarterback. He was a critical and revered member of the team, and now it's going to be a real challenge for his patients, care and research."


"Duane was a brilliant physician, and his brilliance I'd argue was defined by his incredible passion for his patients and a burning passion to investigate the unknown things we didn't know about the biology of cancer and how it impacts us. He was excellent in both arenas," said Dr. Mohan Suntha, associate director of the Greenebaum Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.


"There has been an outpouring of emotional response to the impact of his death by his patients, colleagues and those he trained. … That will be his lasting legacy," said Dr. Suntha. "We've lost a tremendous colleague and friend. Duane's death has moved us all in a unique way. He was a man who was blessed with both intellect and curiosity."


Dr. Sewell, whose father, Dr. Trevor E. Sewell, was a psychologist and former dean of Temple University's School of Education, and whose mother, Fay Barbara Sewell, was professor of mathematics at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania, was born in Milwaukee. He was 7 when he moved with his family to Abington, Pa.


After graduating from Abington High School in 1985, Dr. Sewell earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1989 from Harvard University.


He briefly contemplated a legal career but decided to pursue medicine.


"I think Duane was driven by his desire to help people, especially underprivileged people. That was a big factor in his choosing medicine, plus he was good at science," said his wife of 15 years, Dr. Catherine Sewell, a gynecologist and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, whom he met when both were students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.


After graduating from medical school in 1994, Dr. Sewell completed a surgical internship at Union Memorial Hospital in 1995. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1995 to 1997.


He completed a residency in 2000 in the department of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and from 2000 to 2001 was a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania.


From 2001 to 2002, he was a head and neck surgery fellow in the department of otolaryngology at Penn.


Before coming to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2007, Dr. Sewell was an assistant professor in the department of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Pennsylvania, and was also a staff surgeon at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center.


"He was extremely soft-spoken and humble," said Dr. Cullen. "We all respected his thinking and his final word enormously. He was marvelous at unraveling extraordinarily difficult situations."


"Duane was able to balance his career and at the same time be an incredible family man. I'm willing to bet that his wife and children were the most important thing in his life, and he made his patients feel the same way," said Dr. Suntha.


"From the moment they were diagnosed with cancer, he understood the challenges of the diagnosis and wanted to make sure that the patient and their family were taken care of," he said.


"He was wonderful at calming them, and the bitter irony was that he had to deal with his own at the end of his life," said Dr. Cullen.

The Missing Girls of India



Why an estimated 40 million girls have gone "missing" in India. 

simplehuman

I bought a dual recycling can from Home Outfitters made by simple human about a year ago. It is a rectangular can divided into two separate bins with their own independent lids. One side is for organic waste and the other is for cans, bottles and plastics.

It has served us well and well it should, because it cost us somewhere close to $100.00! I was feeling guilty about buying a garbage can for such an exorbitant price, but nothing quite fit the bill as this recycling can did.

Unfortunately, the lid on the left side somehow broke off last week. So off I went to the interweb to find a replacement. What I found was that the bin I have is no longer made by simple human, that there is nowhere else to look for the lid as the can carries no identifying numbers or model name. I then went to the simple human again and used the parts and service page to send an e-mail describing our recycling can.

I soon received an automated message confirming receipt of my e-mail AND on the first business day after I sent the e-mail a reply arrives saying...

Dear Zahir Paryani,

Thank you for your inquiry and we apologize for any difficulties you are experiencing with your can. We will be glad to send you that replacement lid free of charge. Please allow 7-10 business days for the delivery of your replacement part. Your order will be shipped via UPS to the address you provided on the online form. You will also receive a confirmation email when your order has been processed and shipped.

At simplehuman, we stand behind our products 100% and are working to offer the best possible service. We hope that our products can continue to serve you well for the years ahead.

Best,
Olivia

How cool is that? That, ladies and gentlemen, is customer service! Thank you simple human.

Miami Day 3

And on the third day, Zahir went to the Freedom Tower and he saw an art exhibit on the Negro Baseball League, and he saw that it was good.  He was pleased and it was well-pleasing....especially given the fact that entry to this travelling show was completely free.

The exhibit entitled, We Are The Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball, is a collection of about 40 portraits and other scenes referencing some of the greatest figures from the heyday of the League, whose players, it needs to be said, rivalled the White baseball league.  All of the paintings are by the talented Kadir Nelson.  The exhibit runs till January 8, 2012.

I found the colours on these canvases so very vibrant.  Nelson captures the strength and determination, the dignity and professionalism of the men of the Negro Baseball League with a uniquely identifiable style all his own.  Each painting I approached took my breath away....not just the realistic execution of the pieces but the sad back story of segregation and ultimately, due to the overwhelming skill of players like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, recruitment of the cream of the crop from the Negro Leagues into the Major Leagues.  My pictures do not do the paintings the justice they deserve, but I think you will still be impressed and know why I am gushing over these paintings.  Click on the pictures to have a closer look.

 The Freedom Tower

Kansas City Dugout, 2005, Oil on canvas

First Colored World Series, 2006, Oil on canvas

 Detail, First Colored World Series

Bullet Rogan, 2004, Oil on canvas

Detail, Bullet Rogan

Josh Gibson, 2006, Oil on canvas

 Martin Dihigo, 2006, Oil on Canvas

Martin Dihilgo, detail

Diz and Satch, 2004, Oil on canvas

 Detail, Diz and Satch

Groucho Marx

"Outside of a dog,” he once proclaimed, “a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read."

Source: More Intelligent Life