June 13, 2014 Friday "whizling"

First Words

      …thoughts of an anachronistic, solo pediatrician

                            by Glenn Feole, M.D.

"Be careful too that the reading of your story makes the melancholy 

        laugh and the merry laugh louder," Cervantes, Prologue to Don Quixote

Contact: ishmaelish36@gmail.com

Blog site: ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

June 13, 2014

Chief Complaint

     “whizling” 


Interesting Name:

       Zy Quez X.

Anecdote:

     A very nice couple in my practice went on a long awaited vacation and they had finally, after much        debate and anguish, asked the grandparents to watch their little three year old son.  I was surprised.  They were very protective and this was a big step for them, I had thought.  A few days later, the gentle grandparents called me and then came in to see me because of a painful contusion to the child's toe. 

     When I asked what happened, the Grandfather laughed sheepishly and told me that the cause of the 
contusion was going to be a little embarrassing to explain to the parents.  He looked hesitantly at his
wife with a smile and then turned to me and said, "I had asked him to go to the refrigerate and get me a beer, and it fell on his toe." 
     Westport, Connecticut, 1990's


Poetry

Mr. Robinson at the Supermarket

Recently, he stopped doing his own shopping.

Unpacking groceries made him unbearably sad.

The bags were too full of things he already knew,

so he decided to let other people

choose his food for him.  The man in Produce

sent him to the Customer Service Desk,

where an Assistant Manager smiled, shrugged,

apologized.   He nodded and pushed his empty basket

toward the back of the store, where in the cereal aisle

he found an unattended shopping cart

full of food and shuffled to the checkout.

In the evenings after dinner, he sits

at his kitchen table and thinks about things.

For example, organic deodorant,

beets, baby food, feminine hygiene, 

unscented anti-static dryer-towellets.

For example, the woman across the hall

and her nine cats, each named for one of the planets;

his Japanese Maple bonsai, whose tiny branches

toss and quake with his breath; his goldfish, whose mouth

endlessly forms and re-forms the slow shape

of a question he can never quite hear.

               by Christopher Cunningham

                                   Best New Poets, 2006


Coup d'essai:  On Music

     I have been rereading Oliver Sack's Musicophilia.   As always, he has insightful, delicate writing with such empathy for his patients' suffering.  The power of music to heal.
     I sometimes put on DVD's such as O'Horten, The Triplets of Belleville or The Straight Story just to hear the beautiful ambiance of the sounds of nature, the lyrical background melodies, a train going by, a horn in the distance.  Zen-like in it's simplicity.  When I was doing my art work, every time I put on Brian Eno's Music for Airports I would always know that the lush, minimalist sounds would lead me to create something of beauty.
     
Favorite Song/musician:
     Thelonious Monk,  everything, but especially "Crepescule with Nellie"

Favorite Book/author:
     James Joyce, Dubliners (Araby)

Favorite movie/DVD:
     Groundhog Day, Bill Murray.  Funny and philosophical, one of my favorite comedians.