In watching the news of all that is occurring around us, we may feel that the entire universe is against us. Perhaps the chaos of change is waiting for a new direction. An article by Brazilian entrepreneur Gustavo Tanaka published (in Huffington Post) back on Dec. 16, 2015, titled; "Something Extraordinary Is Happening in the World and Most People Haven't Noticed", stated that the world is changing and points out eight reasons that lead him to believe it.
It was, perhaps, visionary, even prophetic, as the events of the past few years proved his intuitions. But as is the case in insights such as his, there is a positive and a dark side to them. Unfortunately, we are finding ourselves in a disparaging tailspin. However, it does not have to be so. Many see opportunities to be seized. We are at a great crossroad in history. How we plan it, map it, build it and use it will determine the outcome of our future in everything, healthcare included. So, as we take time off to celebrate the wonderful traditions of this time of the year, let’s take a few moments to reflect on what is ahead, and how to structure it so that it will serve humanity positively, productively and effectively. Politicians worldwide have proven incapable of understanding this concept of change. Perhaps because most are too old and stuck in their old ideology. This dangerous ignorance of the changes ahead, is causing such havoc that it may become impossible to resolve. It is therefore up to visionary people, such as Tanaka to point out the right path and hope to have enough people follow it to correct our bungling. Let’s pray and hope so! Happy Holidays!
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I was glued to the round black and white TV screen in the 1960s when Allen Shepard - in a space suit - blasted off on his 5-minute trip to space on a Redstone rocket. That trip took years of training and preparation by Shepard, and millions of dollars of the national budget. On December 8th, 2021, Shepard's daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley made the same trip with five others with literally no training and minimal preparation in the airline type cabin of the Blue Origin.
In medicine, too, our advances have been phenomenal. When Dr. Salk developed the polio vaccine, it took him more than ten years of research and development. In contrast, the first vaccine for Covid-19 was ready to use in about a year. We have come a long way in the past few years of human history and moving ever faster into the future. Despite the many scientific advances, our world is deteriorating into chaos and mayhem. Wars around the world, along with out-of-control crime, are pushing societies to the brink of collapse. The next century will propel mankind into a future unimaginable by many. Whether it will be toward a true utopia of possibilities or the chaos of dystopian nightmares is up to us. Guiding civilization in the right path is a task of our politicians, civil leaders, and all mankind. It is time for the younger generation to step up and take control. Let’s stop funding wars and bolster humanity instead! I look out the window at a
fenced area where I once had a plant nursery. I nurtured and peddled new trees that I thought should live here. But, the weed, vine, and the pine that belong here disagreed. I still have a few leftover lilacs that look at me awkward, as if to say, what am I doing here, old chump? But I go on watering them as a reminder of a futile effort to alter the unchangeable. Only to see the persistent nature be relentless and outlast me. Today, I have a new admiration for the sagebrush, yucca, pinion, and pine. And along the way, learned that if I am to live here, must adapt to her and not expect it to adjust to me. Reza Ghadimi Trying to make sense of the world these days
Could mess up your mind and soul So many factions at work None talk, communicate or are in control Promises broken, before they are made. Coffee was a dime a cup, just yesterday, and Now, it’s not worth breaking a fiver for. When the time is late, and The camouflaged tentacles of the Day’s news rubs the sleep off your eyes Mother nature’s memory can help: The wind swaying the grass on the prairie Lenticular clouds, covering mountain tops Like the hat on a captain’s head peering the horizon Or the gentle slapping of the waves against The boat, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Don’t blame gods, nature or others There is goodness in this world, and It is worth using its power to Fight the ugliness of man’s failings. Much life is left in the day, still Let’s not count the minutes or the hours Lay your head back in her lap, and Enjoy the rocking of the boat. Soon the evening cool will Sooth the day’s sunburn. Tomorrow will be here soon enough, and Bring us a heap of new challenges Close your eyes and breath deep. Reza Ghadimi November 2023 Are these our dark days of history
The news sure paints it that way Though our young keep trying Our allies and politicians Close the doors to any headway It’s Veterans Day, yet still Tough to celebrate from a cardboard box Though our young keep trying The rich and our supposed leaders Claim our struggle is but a hoax If history has a lesson No matter the deceit, nor the lies As long as our young keep trying Resurrect they will, Phoenix will rise Wisdom of fathers, keep open our eyes But this is America, the Promised Land Home of exiles and huddled masses As long as our young keep trying Bright will the future be and boundless For all mankind with dreams and desires She will lift her lamp beside the golden door! Reza Ghadimi November 2023 Virgil was horrified, when he was forced out of his home of thirty years, by the government who confiscated it and gave it to retiring politicians and soldiers returning from war.
Though they were a family of farmworkers; his entrepreneurial father had succeeded in building a comfortable life for his family, and Virgil was educated in philosophy by some of the best schools of the time in Rome, Naples and Milan. He had been writing, and his forced homelessness had a profound effect on his work. He became popular, as many related to his philosophy and writing. His poem; the Aeneid has been popular for centuries. Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro near Mantua, Italy on October 15, 70 BC, nearly 2100 years ago. In the years since, countless wars and national discourses have displaced and exiled millions of people. All due to the pledge of those coming to power to eliminate this very prejudice, putting masses in a merry-go-round of promises, lies, and deceptions leading to disillusion and disappointments. Today, our world is more disabled and unstable than ever. Despite all our technological advancements, we are no wiser. What is frightening is that while we are fighting each other for superiority and dominance, Mother Nature is re-arranging the very world we are fighting for, and that is where our attention needs focusing. For what we may win in our wars today could be underwater tomorrow. So, I ask you – as it is said – what good is caring for our beard, when we are about to lose our head? Fall is now well advanced and the foliage on the mountain side sings in the golden colors of autumn. In my home state of New Mexico, it's Balloon Fiesta time and hundreds of balloonists from around the world are here to show off their flying talent and colorful balloons. The last several years, the event was either cancelled or scaled down due to Covid. So this year the enthusiasm of us all is on full display with an immense showing of the balloonists and the masses. The weather, too, has been cooperating for the most part, to the delight of everyone.
In the streets, the aroma of roasting green chili peppers fill the air and people making an attempt to meet, greet, and interact one last time before shutting in for the winter. I am stopped by the music of mariachi: Voz de la guitarra mía al despertar la mañana Quiere cantar su alegría a mi tierra Nuevo Mexicana Yo le canto a tus volcanes, a tus praderas y flores … For those who are of Latin heritage or have spent any time in Latin America, listening to the music of the mariachi horns is a nostalgic journey. What a beautiful world we live in and if it was not for polarizing politics, it would be pleasing to everyone. It's fall time and as we shut our doors to the coming cold, let's also shut it to all the hatred, bigotry and polarizing discourse. So when the voice of our guitars wakes us tomorrow morning, it would be to the joy of a peaceful and healthy world. As healthcare providers, we have the power to greatly contribute to the health and beauty of this world. Let us be the leaders in this revolution and endeavor. The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics, are awarded this week. Interesting, how telecommunication tools have played an important role in achieving many of these science outcomes.
The Nobel Prize for medicine, for example, given to Katalin Karikó from Hungry and Drew Weissman from the US, for their discoveries that led to the development of an effective vaccine against Covid-19. The Nobel Prize for physics was shared by three scientists; Pierre Agostini, a French experimental physicist, Ferenc Krausz a Hungarian-Austrian physicist working at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany and Anne L’Huillier, a French-Swedish physicist, at Lund University in Sweden, for their work on electrons. And the Nobel Prize for chemistry given to Moungi G. Bawendi, a Tunisian-French-American chemist, Louis E. Brus of the US, and Alexei I. Ekimov of Russia for the discovery and development of quantum dots - nanoparticles so small that their size determines their properties. The awards for literature, peace and economic will be announced during the rest of the award ceremonies this week. Many recipients are from continents apart, yet cooperating in real time with each other to achieve these fantastic feats. Such team work from differing arenas help to accomplish solutions faster, eliminating hesitancies and diffidence. Such contacts and collaborations could, however, add to many of our problems too. Thus, it is up to us to discern the beneficial from detrimental. Maybe then more people will become eligible to receive prizes and recognition. Or better yet, we'll have a good enough world that they will not be needed. A letter arrived the other day
From an old friend, Saying that she was walking by a pier And thought of me and that she missed me. She said that the cold and foggy day Was what she remembered me by And how we went back to my place and I played the blues for her on my old gramophone. That she sat on the steps to the loft and Cried for no reason, just because she felt like it. I made her hot chocolate and put a blanket about her, It felt good; she said and fell asleep on the couch Later that evening, we had enchiladas and beer And I walked her home, she said, but she walked back With me to mine, because she didn’t want to be alone. The next morning, I left at four to be at work by six, At a clinic across town, and She woke alone and let herself out; she said. “I felt lonely all that day, because I hadn’t told you, That I was leaving for Europe that evening, And we didn’t say goodbye except on the phone.” She said. That was the last time we saw each other, she repeated. It was many years ago. So today, Walking by a foggy pier on a Mediterranean coast, she remembered and Found this old address of mine and wrote to me to say that she misses me. “I hope this letter reaches you and finds you well. I am doing very well and am just feeling nostalgic.” Her letter was forwarded to me and found me. It was not signed. Odd thing, I hardly remember the nostalgia of hers, nor do I recall her name. It was long ago. Maybe after I dust the memories and read her letter again. Maybe? The 78th UN General Assembly is meeting in NY this week. The problems and the solutions facing us are obvious, old and require cooperation and reconciliation. But the aggressors of today, all seem to be victims of the past who have carved a piece of this world by force or chance for themselves and are unwilling or unable to part with any of it. Our shrinking world, however, is forcing the pieces to overlap, triggering further clashes. Ironically, today is the UN International Day of Peace.
The suffering population of our broken world is painfully begging for understanding and resolve, yet we are stuck at such a stalemate that many of the key leaders have not even bothered to attend this UN meeting. Those who are here seem to ramble the obvious with ever louder and threatening voices to a deaf audience. These are the times of history As an afternoon of a day Was the work completed? As we wonder the result Of our efforts, beliefs, and views Was any good done? Was it worth it? Maybe it’s my age Many decades, plus I was born just a few days after D-Day While I was crying at my mother’s bosom People were killed around the world Dying for their beliefs and choices Could they have all made the wrong, right choices? Now, well into the next century Steeped into beliefs and thoughts It’s frightening, the similarities between The beliefs of today and what was believed then. It’s the afternoon of history In the distance, storm clouds rising Catching the sun rays in their cauliflower heads Exposing an alarming beauty to those who know Below the morphing colors of the sunset Lightning and thunder (of discontent) shake the land A stormy night is upon the world Pray our house survives! Reza Ghadimi September 2023 |