Archive for January 2016
Empathy Is Not Specific To Humans
Do yourself a favor and read this article from the New York Times Magazine. It describes how orphaned parrots are helping war veterans move beyond Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Apparently, parrots are highly social animals who are compelled to bond with their flock in the wild, and when domesticated, suffer intense distress until they…
Read MoreWho Holds Us In Their Hearts?
I watched an interview with Graham Nash yesterday, talking about the recent deaths of David Bowie and Glenn Frey. He was asked if these events had him thinking about his own time left on earth, and not surprisingly, he admitted that at age 74 (older than both Frey and Bowie), he had been thinking about…
Read MoreBack To My Roots
Last weekend, on a retreat with my sisters, I saw the house that my parents were living in when I was born—for the first time. This was all the more remarkable since that house was only about ten miles from the house that I grew up in from the time I was 15 months old,…
Read MoreLet The Case Speak For Itself
I saw a post on facebook this week, a sad story of a man at the end of life who was denied a feeding tube by the hospital ethics committee, despite his request for one. It appeared that he was competent, and since he was uninsured, the denial raised issues of financially-driven unethical behavior. Responders…
Read MoreA Place For Art
I just returned from a brief vacation with my family to the Texas Hill Country, where we enjoyed the beautiful landscape, ate some wonderful food, visited wineries and a distillery, and enjoyed live music in Austin, Fredericksburg, Luckenbach, and Gruene. Most interesting to me were the dance halls and saloons, where a crowd gathered each…
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