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
August 2, 2014
Chief Complaint: (written on the chart before I go in the room)
“His cough is better but he feels worse, which is a strange combination.”
Interesting Name:
Da man (but he goes by “Porkchop”)
Anecdote: Part II of the "Gentle Luke" anecdotes
Luke came lumbering in for a check-up. He is a gentle, huge sixteen year old teenager who lives on a farm – he hunts, raises animals, the whole nine yards. When I first met him several years ago and looked at his growth chart, I though he might be obese…until I saw his looming Frankensteinian figure.
His Mother laughed when I told her that, according to the graph, he was overweight. She had assured me that he was active all day on the farm...feeding the animals, bailing hay, even using his arms to pull fence posts out of the ground at will. He is not overweight; just tall and solid and massive. His farm boots alone look indestructible and could house a small premature infant comfortably.
I do love to hear about his life, and he has obliged and has updated me over the years. Three years ago, in 2009, he had 150 cows ("beef " cattle if you are wondering, like I wasn't), two calves, and 115 quail, which amazed me in my New England naivite. This year he was down to “only” fifty cattle and was no longer raising quail…but his friend and neighbor raised 8,000 quail he casually informed me.
South Carolina, October, 2012
Poetry:
Weighing the Dog
It is awkward for me and bewildering for him
as I hold him in my arms in the small bathroom,
balancing our weight on the shaky blue scale,
but this is the way to weigh a dog and easier
than training him to sit obediently on one spot
with his tongue out, waiting for the cookie.
With pencil and paper I subtract my weight
from our total to find out the remainder that is his,
and I start to wonder if there is an analogy here.
It could not have to do with my leaving you
though I never figure out what you amounted to
until I subtracted myself from our combination.
You held me in your arms more than I held you
through all those awkward and bewildering months
and now we are both lost in storage and distant
neighborhoods.
by Billy Collins, form Questions about Angels
Coup d'essai:
"For there I can show you more that three hundred books, which are the treasure of my heart and the delight of my life," spoken by Don Quixote in Don Quixote, Cervantes, Chapter XXIV, p. 197.
Favorite Musician/song:
Band of Horses, "Older"
My daughter, Kelly, played this when she first danced with her husband at their wedding. I will never forget the yells and shrieks of delight from the crowd, her family and friends, many from Austin, Texas, when the opening bars of this song first started and they began to dance. It was an instant connection of love…joyful memories of being together with family. It also reminds me of being with them in that magical place, Austin, during the SXSW Festival.
Favorite Book/author:
Dirda, Michael "Classics for Pleasure"
Favorite Movie/DVD:
Driving Miss Daisy, with Morgan Freeman
A gentle Southern tale, filled with maternal love and a commentary on the beauty of racial harmony.
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