Compass

NEWS states the compass.  North, East, West and South help us stay oriented to time and space.  The news of the ages tends to disorient us.  We hear of calamities contrasted with joyful events.  Making sense of this may lead to a mental head spin.  Exiting the nauseous head spin may cause us to one to regurgitate thus forcint one to face in a single direction.  Ah stability! in the middle of nausea, if that is rational? Will the stability be settled and perpetuated?  From when comes a settle stable mind set?  Where does one find a moral compass?  Our creator made directions,  Is it possible we should look to Him for stability? 

YOU're OK

Yes the last year has been more than OK.  It has been fantastic.  The simple things in life have remained simple.  I fortunately do not need assistance in the elimination areas of my body.  My plumbing works well.  A year I wondered if such would happen.  I have healed well from the robotic surgery for prostate cancer.  On the anniversary of my surgery as I wrote the date the pain of the surgery became fresh in my mind.  Since the event was a year ago I did not anticipate such feelings.  As much as I believe I can control my emotions, I found that remembering the pain although not markedly significant still was fresh.  Actually more fresh than I expected.  

A year ago many people were praying for me from many different countries.  I am grateful for the those who remembered me.  I am grateful for the outcome of the surgery.  I am reminded almost daily of the faithfulness of those who are in Christ.

HEART

Knowledge

The other day I gave a talk on congenital heart defects.  For those who know the complexity of the heart attempting to make the talk direct simple and understandable presented a great challenge.  While in medical school the head of the pediatric cardiology department gave talks on heart defects which I remember the salient points to this day.  So after spending much time gather information heart sounds, video etc. I went back to the basic talk enhanced by heart sounds and videos.  The talk was for medical students who are beginning to learn about physical diagnoses.  So the talk centered on three groups of three.  Shunts, obstruction and cyanotic heart defects.  Shunts are three atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus.  The obstructions are three- pulmonic stenosis, aortic stenosis and coarctation of the aorta. Cheating a bit with the cyanotic heart defects there are three major ones but five is actually a better number.  However, they all begin with the letter T so that helps the memory.  Tetralogy of Fallot, transposition of the great arteries, tricuspid atresia, truncus arteriosus and the a long one- total anomalous pulmonary veinous return.  Even if you remember all the the cyanotic heart diseases you will still be feeling a bit blue along with the discomfort of a blue patient.  

Tetralogy of Fallot four part prove to be easily remembered.  P-pulmonary stenosis  R-right ventricular hypertrophy  O-overriding aorta and V-ventricular septal defect.  All the blue patients tip one off to a heart problem the other heart problems take a bit more investigation and often are picked up by an astute clinician who listen carefully to the patient as well as the heart.  Several are more easily missed than identified.  Some do not matter because they will self correct.  Others need correction to protect the lung and the brain.  

Life gets interesting in that when things get a bit complex we often are forced to study the subject long enough to recognize the simplicity of the topic.  Then often the simply way of adjusting to the problem becomes difficult because we do not embrace the simplicity.  When pride swells up the easy solution is to swallow your pride admit to the problem that may have been made difficult by your own stubbornness and press on with life.  Easy, but taking the courage to admit is the crux of the solution.  So when pride comes our way, we admit to it and press on with life.  So easy right?

Or to often I left the heart defect go undetected and wait for the diagnostic machines to point me to my problem.

Infinity and beyond

Greetings

Now that I am over half way through my 7th decade of life, I am expected possibly by others to have wisdom and significant direction in life.  Since I am a dusty puff the decades of my life in the expanse of all time have not given me the time resources and energy to comprehend the totality of life and the impact of all of life on humankind.  One human being lacks the capability to synthesize the essence of life.  So where does one turn to find the essence of life.  We human beings are trapped in our own humanity.  Therefore, it makes sense to search outside the human race for the meaning and essence of life.  Many indicate that station of the human condition came from an infinity of years by trial and error.  Since the history of mankind gives us insight into more of our errors than successes, does it make sense that trial and error places in our current predicament.  Since we humans concentrate on error one may conclude that our errors are our trials.  So what source outside of the human race can make sense of our human condition?  Who has spoken to the human race to let us know from whence we came?

Ancient writings contain the information of an essence who spoke to human kind after the genesis of our being from the one true essence.  Search the ancient scriptures to begin to understand from where whence we humans came and our destiny in infinity.  

Wat

Silence is very loud especially this year.  I have not seen the movie, but it is my understanding that silent movie, The Artist, won the academy award for the best picture of the year.  When movies were first made they were silent and people yearned to have sound.  Now it appears that the decibels have gone over the top and we desire silence.  Excessive noise causes our mind to become overloaded and our thoughts become chaotic.  Case in point, as I am writing this I am listening to a book on Kindle so that I do not miss anything.  All my senses must be engaged.  Silence tends to make one become nervous since silence denotes inactivity.  We need to be active.

A few years ago I rented a car in the Los Angles area.  The clerk asked where I was going-Fresno CA.  He stated nothing happens there.  I suggested he needed to be busy so he did not have to think and face the thoughts that we come.  Surprisingly, he agreed.  Noise and activity help us anesthetize ourselves so that we are doing but are we thinking and understanding the why of noise and doing?

Should be listening for silence so that we may understand more of life?

Young Old Young

On January 3, 2012 my mother turned 88 years old.  Now depending upon ones perspective that is very old and a rather arduous milestone of which to attain.  Over the years my mother has put her age in a way such that she has grown out of being old.  When she was 20 years old she knew many old people since her definition of someone who is old is one who is 20 years old than she.  So it appears that she has become younger since she no longer knows anyone 20 years beyond her years.  So maybe she has a child’s mind in an elderly body.

The Endocrine System

If you desire to gain insight into the endocrine system watch a video of traffic in Phnom Penh  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDkhVbsSprU   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=eVkJtJynTT4&NR=1  

These will give you a little taste but to get the full effect watch a few more.