I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We wait too long to appreciate the living. We take for granted that family and friends will be there tomorrow, especially if they’re young. Who would expect a tragic accident or a sudden illness to take them away from us? We assume we have time until...
The steps aren’t enough; feel the music. Johnny Castle, Dirty Dancing (1987) One of my favorite movies is Dirty Dancing, not only for Patrick Swayze’s dance moves but for the litany of memorable movie quotes that, even taken out of context, deliver life’s most poignant lessons. Feel the Music Music speaks volumes. When Mandy Harvey...
If you aren’t aware, the U.S. healthcare system is not working for all Americans. It’s time we do something about that. A Broken Health Care System According to Dr. Michael Fine, we do not have a healthcare system at all. We have a marketplace. He is absolutely right. Medicine today is focused more on profit than care, and...
Pizza is part of the American way of life, and Mason Wartman embodies the American dream. Born in Venezuela, he moved to the United States where he was raised in the great state of Pennsylvania. He later earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management at Babson College. It didn’t take long before...
There are people who dream and people who do. Harriette Thompson fell into the latter group. Beating the Odds The nonagenarian was a force of nature. A former concert pianist, she performed at Carnegie Hall three times. She knew what it took to dedicate herself to a craft — the endless hours of practice, hard work, and...
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) left behind a legacy like no other. As the first person (man or woman) to take positions on both the Harvard Law Review and the Columbia Law review, the first woman law professor to be tenured at Columbia, the co-founder of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, and the...
Tao Porchon-Lynch loved yoga, and she wasn’t going to let three hip replacements stop her. When she was introduced to the practice back in 1926, she was told it was not ladylike and that she should let it go. Instead, she stood up to the naysayers and build her life on what made her happy. I...
As a family physician, I meet far too many people who have cancer. Thankfully, I have met a great many survivors too. I met one such woman while doing a home visit for Medicare up in Laconia, New Hampshire. Rosy and buoyant, Shirley Stokes is an inspiration not only because she is a survivor of...
Being a doctor is not a job. It is more than a profession. It is a calling. What It Means to Be a Doctor Someone does not go into medicine for the money. If that’s the goal, there are easier ways to do it without seven or more years of vigorous training and hundreds of...
When my great aunt Helen passed away, she was 103 years years old. The year she was born was the first that a commercial airline took flight. Alive before penicillin, before women had the right to vote, before television, she also lived through the Great Depression, both World Wars, man’s first steps on the moon,...
