UPDATED … see extended entry
So most of you who know me know that I generally love those ice-breaker games when you have to tear off toilet paper or grab gummy bears (gotta love alliteration), and then have to say something about yourself for each square of toilet paper or gummy bear in your hands. I love taking lots, not because I like to talk about myself, but I really want to get to know people. I figure if I provide an array of scintillating tidbits, then there should be some common ground for the basis of future conversations.
I think some people figure that I share a bit too much – and, quite honestly, that same thought has crossed my own mind. But it’s mainly just superficial fluff – my mask, if you will.
This whole thing has been a prologue. A prologue to a potential post that was an email in another life. An email that was the answer to, ‘how’s your heart?’. As I wrote my response to that question, many things were straightened out for me. As though the issue was worked through. In the end I was able to say that my heart was well.
I’m still not sure about posting my response. It would need names and places omitted and quite a bit of editting before I felt comfortable putting it up for the world. But that’s how I am. Fairly selective about what I let out – despite appearances to the contrary.
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Results from my riding ofWinnipeg: Charleswood-St. James Riding From: CBC – Canada Votes 2004
It would appear former mayor and Liberal candidate Glen Murray has been defeated by Steven Fletcher, the Conservative candidate.
Interesting (?) to note that both the Communist Party and the Marijuana Party received votes in this riding.
So, although I’ve figured out who I’m voting for tomorrow, I did find it interesting that Paul had (note the past tense) his own blog. (This is not supposed to be an endorsement on my behalf — more of a statement on how leaders are reaching out to a demographic that tends not to vote.)
So do your part – vote tomorrow!!!! If you haven’t been put on the voting list or received a card in the mail, you can still vote. Just bring a piece of ID with your name, current address and signature on it or two pieces with some combination of the above to your polling station (look it up here).
PS – There’s always the fake Paul Martin Blog
I promised some details of my camping adventures. Essentially, driving between provinces provided a decent amount of time for deep conversations. One of them went something like this:
Taking one extreme to its completion, treating medical conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes is life-support. While some people have moral/ethical objections to machines that keep people alive, for example in the ICU (respirators to keep you breathing, dialysis machines when your kidneys can’t filter out enough crap, and defibrilators and pacemakers to keep your heart ticking), treatment for less acute illness rarely is questioned these days. However, the goal of any medical treatment is either to prolong life or to improve quality of life.
Quality of life is a whole other discussion that didn’t take place on a road somewhere in Saskatchewan. It was the intervention into length of life that I wished to talk about. I questioned whether or not it was appropriate for myself, as a health care professional, to be so presumptuous as to play god in this manner. Who am I to esteem a long life? Now an answer was not found under the prairie sky that day, but these are the questions and points that still remain:
(1) Whether God causes illness and/or allows illness, presumably it’s all a part of ‘the plan’. (Perhaps the presence or lack of “the plan’s” existence/necessity is worth a discussion in the future.)
(2) Presumably God could/would intervene at any point and allow or disallow a medical intervention to an individual, according to ‘the plan’.
(3) People should use their gifts, talents, abilities and knowledge to do good unto others. (Again, is prolonging life a good thing?)
(4) Is there a line in medical treatment that should not be crossed when it comes to length of life? (How does one treat chronic conditions [heart disease, blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes, mental illness, thyroid disease etc] vs acute ones [infection, trauma]? Is there (should there be) a difference when it comes to treating the young vs the old? What if a person choose not to treat a chronic condition and now they end up in hospital with a complication? What about life support?)
I don’t have answers. I don’t know if there should be answers. But an answer would sure be nice.
Despite that it is now days after the summer solstice, a strong arctic system channels a steady icy breeze over the latitudes, further cooled by large bodies of water in its path. I blinked and missed summer. Faint memories of sticky hot afternoons and paddling pools are being overwhelmed with the present need for sweaters and slippers during the day and a thick blanket for night.
And I think this tree is dying. The tree that so patiently has kept watch over me these past few weeks. The one which lures me to sleep each night with the lullaby of wind in its branches. The one so gallant, so steady, so enduring.
It has survived years of sun and rain and wind and snow. Countless birds and dogs and cats and small children have left their mark. It is caught somewhere between spring and autumn.
A mixture of pale spring green and hints of autumn reds and oranges. A kaleidoscope erupts as sunlight and shadows dance through the gentle swaying of branches. Then all is muted once again as rainclouds slowly drown out the last rays of sunlight on this tree, not yet in its prime.
