Yep, they'd be eligible . . . .

The Writing/Editing Life

40th Anniversary . . . .

Forty years ago I married this wonderful man. I would choose him again. In a heartbeat. 

Book Review: Anatomy of a Kidnapping

Anatomy of a Kidnapping; A Doctor's Story is a perfect title for this book, as its author, Steven L. Berk is a physician who responded to the events of March 6, 2005, with the instincts and skills he had honed in his many years of practicing medicine. On that day, an armed man entered his home, took him captive, and forced him into a white van. For four hours, Dr. Berk dealt with a meth-addicted felon with a history of violence who was looking for money to score more drugs. Although the defense attorney and others questioned the choices he made during his ordeal at the hands of this psychopath (when Berk might have had opportunities to flee), Berk justifies and explains these choices logically; he evaluated the situation and did what he thought was best for his family and himself under the circumstances. I would never challenge that statement. Certainly the outcome suggests he made many wise choices in  dealing with his captor, and that only he could evaluate the terrifying situation in which he found himself and determine the strategies he would use to deal with it.  This is an engrossing book that details not only the kidnapping of Dr. Berk, but also contains many fascinating anecdotes from his years as a physician that helped to develop his particular method of assessing situations and acting accordingly. “In times of crisis,” he writes, “no matter the nature, a physician must do his best to promote calm, rational solutions to any problem. Even when emotions are running high and a situation is getting out of control, a physician must stay impassive and composed, and practice clear judgment.” Even at the trial, Dr. Berk maintained this clear judgment when he addressed the man who had held a shotgun to his head and changed his life forever, telling him, “Someday I hope you admit to your crimes and ask forgiveness.” The book also contains excerpts of testimony from the trial and newspaper articles relating to the case, which contain information from other points of view, adding more depth to the story. A term Berk often uses is “aequanimitas” which Dr. William Osler defines as: “imperturbability . . . Imperturability means coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances, calmness amid storm, and clearness of judgment in moments of great peril, immobility, impassiveness. It is the quality which is most appreciated by the laity though often misunderstood by them.” The most moving part of the book comes at the end, when in a dream, Dr. Berk is able to make amends for mistakes he has made in his life and learns of treatments and research that benefited others, many of which he had not known. Later, imagining the worst scenario, he writes a touching letter to his son. His address to students at a white coat ceremony, when they begin the study of medicine and take the Hippocratic Oath, is also included, and has a powerful message about the need to develop compassion, honesty and respect as they continue in their training. Berk explains how his own concept of aequanimitas was strengthened and refined by his kidnapping as he concludes: “Jack Lindsey Jordan taught me a lesson using his temper, his shotgun, his attempt at intimidation. I could not afford to fret over small things or imagined fears again. I would celebrate my life, my experiences, and my contributions at every opportunity. I would fear no evil, large or small. I had become much closer to a life of aequanimitas. Perhaps that is the most important lesson coming from my experience: to live each day to its fullest; to celebrate the joys of family, work, and good health; and to appreciate our every moment as precious.” I found Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor's Story compelling and well written. It’s a definite page-turner. Even though we know the outcome from the beginning, we want to see the actual events unfold, and Dr. Berk invites us into his unique personal perspective as he does so. I also had another reason for wanting to read Anatomy of a Kidnapping: my son is a physician in residency in El Paso, Texas, at a hospital and clinic associated with Texas Tech University, where Dr. Berk is Dean of Medicine and Provost of Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. In other words, though somewhat distanced through the chain of administrative command, Dr. Berk is ultimately my son’s boss. With Dr. Berk at the helm, he is in excellent hands. Dr. Berk's story was recently featured on Biography Channel's "I Survived" Season 4  http://www.biography.com/tv/i-survived/episodes/lenorestevenellen-jim

Ever made Stone Soup? It's delicious.

from Google Images

Ever made stone soup? Here's a summary of the story, from Wikipedia:

Stone Soup is an old folk story in which hungry strangers persuade local people of a town to give them food. It is usually told as a lesson in cooperation, especially amid scarcity. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as button soup, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup. In the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification system it is type 1548.^[1]

Some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. Then the travellers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

My granddaughter and I love to read this book together, and when I saw a board game based on the story, I bought it for her birthday (Peaceable Kingdom/Stone Soup Cooperative Game). It’s a picture matching game, non-competitive (you can even help each other) and the goal is to find all the soup ingredients, including the magic stone, before the fire goes out. Then I decided we should make our own Stone Soup, and enlisted her dad in the project. We got into the spirit of the story and took the parts of various characters as we added ingredients to the basic stone (a piece of smooth polished glass, easy to clean and too big to swallow) and water. Our soup ingredients: boullion, ground beef, carrots, potatoes, frozen corn, frozen peas, small white beans, tomatoes, celery, onions, a handful of pasta, tomato-based vegetable juice, and a pinch of brown sugar. The soup was delicious, and memorable, too. 

Wisdom from Grammarly

First Library Card

Darling Granddaughter #1 with her very own library card.

Upload, download or offload?

Okay, I'm easing into the new vocabulary here. For several years I've understood download. It's something you do with photos and music and information files you see on the internet and want to load onto your own computer. You can also find software manuals and other vital information to download with just a few clicks. Downloading is great. It's empowering. It's efficient. 

   

Upload: That's a newer concept for me. You take a file of your own and send it to a website on the internet. That can be a little daunting until you get used to it. Millions have uploaded video clips onto Youtube, though.On Facebook or a blog you can post a comment and/or picture. That's an upload. You can also go to an organization's contest webpage and paste an essay, short story, etc. into a designated box. With one click it's launched, and although you cringe at the thought of judges reading it, you can't take it back.  

Now we come to offload. From an online dictionary: to transfer data to a peripheral device. OK, I guess that would be to your e-reader, your phone, another computer, etc. That's logical. 


But it also makes me think of another situation. I've been in a lot of airports lately. Sitting at one of the many airports I visited going to and from Finland recently, I heard an occasional announcement like this: "Mr.John Jones, your flight to Taiwan is about to depart. Please report to the gate or your luggage will be offloaded."

Oh, now I get it. Your luggage will be unloaded, taken off, or thrown off the plane. Most likely thrown off the plane. (Why don't they just say that?)

Speaking of airports, I heard something in Amsterdam that made me wonder who was in dire straits. An announcement came over the entire terminal's PA system, spoken by an employee with a Chinese accent: "We are looking for a passenger who can speak English and Russian to translate for us. Please report to Gate B-9 immediately."    

Anyway, back to the new terms: I can now use the following three words with some degree of confidence:upload, download, and offload. May your uploads be successful, your downloads helpful and rewarding, and your offloads rewarding However, I hope you never experience an offload of your luggage. 

Communicating with your editor

#3 son loves to shock his mom. Yes, that's real electricity.