A Christmas Blessing
Whether you live in good health or poor, may you travel well on your journey, and may your eyes face the horizon with courage.Posted on December 24, 2007 10:58 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Cheerful Oncologist
"Courage and cheerfulness will not only carry you over the rough places in life, but will enable you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted and will console you in the sad hours." -Sir William Osler
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My archives are located at Archives of the Cheerful Oncologist, Volume 2
Lyrical:
A Message to One Who Mourns
"Can't you do something to make this pain go away?" No, my child, but understand that the greater is your pain, the greater was your love. Only passionate hearts can produce passionate grief. Such hearts use the gift of time...Posted on November 26, 2007 4:29 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Light That Needs to Shine
Those who are able to spark their lamp and put it to work, to keep this gift of encouragement and "good works" going as long as it is properly tended - what better use for this than caring for those with cancer?Posted on October 1, 2007 8:39 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The End of the Race
[Editor's note: the following allegory has something to do with cancer. Sometimes we have trouble figuring out what the narrator is trying to say, so don't blame us.] There are certain bursts of perfection in summer that if noticed, bring...Posted on July 6, 2007 9:30 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Miles to Go
She responded so rapidly to her first treatment it seemed as if she had been snatched from the bony arms of the Sepulchral Angel by the magic within these drugs.Posted on June 25, 2007 3:09 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Death of Spring
When you strode over the horizon with your promises we loved you, Spring, but you've stayed too long.Posted on May 6, 2007 8:33 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Enemy Within
If it sees you sitting quietly it drills into your mind, to infect it with the foul worms of hopelessness.Posted on April 23, 2007 9:01 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Dream
I had a dream recently where I walked through a shimmering forest, on my way to an unknown destination.Posted on March 8, 2007 9:54 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Sunday Night Poem - Rumi
English translations of Rumi's poems have sold over half a million copies worldwide, but has your narrator ever read even one line of his verse?Posted on February 11, 2007 9:16 PM • • 0 TrackBacks
The Sunday Night Poem - Matthew Arnold
Arnold lived in an era of violent intellectual turmoil (gee, sound familiar?) which is reflected in his body of work.Posted on January 21, 2007 7:58 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Two Thoughts from Norman Cousins
These two little maxims seem connected so I would like to share them both: "Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." -Norman Cousins (1915-1990) Of all the quotations...Posted on January 6, 2007 4:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Do You Believe in Miracles?
How cruelly the days fly off the calendar when the rest of one's life can be measured in just a few seasons!Posted on December 21, 2006 3:33 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Happy Thanksgiving
Wishing you all the blessings of family, work, friendship, faith and most of all good health. If I may I'd like to show you a piece from one of my favorite artists - Daniel Garber (1880-1958). For more information about...Posted on November 23, 2006 8:57 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Best of the Cheerful Oncologist: Reflections of Autumn - and Cancer
Fall is a poignant time for many people, representing turning points that are deeply embedded in the psyche, such as the end of summer swimming and the beginning of dawdling down the sidewalk back to school.Posted on October 1, 2006 2:32 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Modest Wish
Every day I pray for someone to unlock the crucial secret of the aberrant cell's immortality, so that it can be exploited to the detriment of its unnatural reign over us.Posted on September 13, 2006 4:25 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Best of the Cheerful Oncologist: "The Days Dwindle Down to a Precious Few"
Then it dies. Autumn sweeps the last remnants of it into forgotten corners and we stand at the window, quivering with remembrance and mortality.Posted on September 1, 2006 10:12 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Oasis
In this age of increasingly high expectations and awkwardly declining service, how rare it is to find someone who enjoys interacting with health care workers.Posted on August 15, 2006 11:58 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Four Freedoms of Cancer Patients
Some people in the healing arts profession interact with cancer patients like a motorist driving by a horrific accident - any feelings of empathy are swept away by the giddiness of schaudenfreude.Posted on August 11, 2006 1:48 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Goodbye to the Lake
Let's find Cassiopia among the endless diamonds of the night sky, and listen to the sassiness of the whip-poor-will while walking under the ghostly light of the full moon.Posted on August 4, 2006 5:50 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Letting Go
Doctors practice each day with the angel of unnecessary caution sweetly whispering to them "Don't do it - your patient will die."Posted on July 29, 2006 12:27 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Best of The Cheerful Oncologist: "Good Doctors Leave Good Tracks"
No other career combines the dual responsibilities of academic study and human contact as magnificently as medicine. As Sir William Osler said, "To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all."Posted on July 15, 2006 1:52 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Slow Down, Doctor!"
I can't seem to get my patients taken care of before another voice in the wilderness cries out for help. It reminds me of raking leaves on a Saturday in October when a sudden gust of wind scatters the pile across the yard and shakes the tree limbs, raining a thousand more golden stars down on one's head.Posted on July 11, 2006 1:01 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Cancer in the Great Outdoors
What is it about standing beneath shady leaves, or watching miniature frogs leap into the water that erases memories of suffering?Posted on July 2, 2006 9:52 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A One Question Quiz
To find out that your hospital is being replaced with shining new multi-million dollar building is like being promoted from running a hot dog stand to the kitchens of Alain Ducasse.Posted on June 27, 2006 8:00 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Doc, Can You Put It in Plain English?"
Lately for some reason I've been handing out analogies like a slot machine with three 7s showing on it. Divine afflatus seems to have temporarily left the creative geniuses who deign to entertain us bumpkins and has come to roost, albeit temporarily, in mine own meager coconut. I recall three scenarios recently where I attempted to translate medical gobbledegook into radiant prose.Posted on June 20, 2006 7:00 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Look Backward in Anger
Other than those esoteric gentlemen (or is it gentlepersons?) whose job it is to dispatch robust but morally askew, to say the least, prisoners to the shores of the river Styx (by way of the needle and the damage done, if you know what I mean), is there any other career more displeasing than that of the medical oncologist?Posted on June 12, 2006 8:44 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
