What happens when a virus that injures the brain runs amok? Fatalities hidden behind hospital doors and inside homes don’t faze politicians or reporters. The pandemic scurries along unchecked even as the World Health Organization decided today to continue the international emergency. While we’re all focused on politicians and complicit public health, I’m glaring at…
Category: Essay
Do We Consider Relationships When We Vote?
“I thought and remembered a great deal about my relationships while I was in heaven, but not at all about my work or other earthly issues.” 7 Lessons from Heaven. Mary Neal, MD Voting is an earthly issue; politics and democracy consume our thoughts and conversations these days. What if we reframed our politics in…
Medicine Must Collaborate to End the Pandemic
The siloed practice of medicine has lead to a terrible pandemic response. The Swiss Cheese model of preventing COVID-19 transmission demonstrates the power of whole-picture thinking.
Remembering Pastor Duke Vipperman
My Pastor, The Rev. Canon Dr. Walter Bryce (Duke) Vipperman, died on Friday, 3 January 2020 from cancer at the age of 69. This is my eulogy of an ordinary, radical man. The sun shone on the church steps as Duke shook hands with congregants emerging through the ornery wood church doors. I hung back…
Why Do Canadians of Colour Dismiss Trudeau’s Blackface?
Research and awareness may explain why Canadians cannot see overt racism. When I first read about Time magazine revealing on September 18, 2019 an old photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in brownface, I thought: someone is muckraking, and what is brownface, anyway? Then I saw the photo. Then I saw the photo and video…
What’s Flying Across “the Pond” like?
What’s flying across “the pond” like against the prevailing winds? Well, sit back in your narrowest chair, stretch your feet out till your knees are half bent, and let me tell you. Or watch! To begin, I used an e-Boarding Pass on my iPhone; and took one small suitcase whose zip is Herculean in strength,…
Reading v. Learning: A Thought Exercise
Is reading learning? Are the higher cognitive aspects of reading really just learning and concentration? Are my problems only learning issues and not reading ones? If it’s solely a learning issue, then logically I would have the same kind of issue with any kind of learning. If learning is the issue, then the modality of…
Do Therapists Need to be on Twitter?
Data don’t lie; you can’t hide from data. Mid-August my gamma brainwaves had dropped, my ever-spinning busy brain, heart rate, and muscle tension risen. Then my Pastor helped me make a necessary decision, and all my brainwaves returned to my normal the first week of September. I learnt a hard lesson about social media and…
Authors Notice Good Editors: What to Look For
Let’s talk editing. I’ve been trained as a copy editor, have edited newsletters for content and grammar, and have had four separate editing experiences as a writer. I also began my publishing career as a proofreader, learnt a bit about graphic design, and was a desktop publisher. I’ve worked on text the traditional way and…