Thank you is just not enough! I have been following you since the beginning of this journey with your letters. I have learned so much from you. The only thing is, it has become an addiction. I check for your posts before I go to bed & first thing in the morning if I didn't see your post the night before. Enjoy your time with your hubby. Will be looking forward to my "fix" tomorrow night. :-)
Exactly! It's been said that Americans are "divided" or "polarized." But are we really divided when 2/3 of us are on the side of truth and reality and the other 1/3 have been led down a path of falsities and conspiracy theories by perpetrators of bad faith?
Yankees and Red Sox fans are divided, each demonstrating loyalties to worthy opponents. I believe Trump supporters aren't of just another opinion, divided against an equal challenger, but a sect, peeled off from the mainstream population. We didn't split apart, they left us.
I believe they diverged from the path we chose to stay on. I continue to observe behaviors seeking to discern what the view from the fork in the road was. For now I've come to these things I wonder as I watch:
1) are you willing to assume best intentions of others ?
2) do you believe we always have a choice, even when the choice is really, really hard ?
3) do you personally act/choose out of love or fear ?
There is a great deal of generation, collective, & individual trauma in our world. People are hurt, scared, and on defense. They feel like they have to protect themselves from hurt & disappointment always.
It feels to me like Trump, JD, Ted, Ron, Lindsay, and millions of others are leading from pain. Probably no great revelation that they act from a place of victimhood. Some folks like Mitch are all about Power...at the end of the day its the same recipe of fear.
Joy can heal. Joy brings light. The ability to find Hope & Joy in the face of devastation is NOT a trivial act. Victor Frankl taught us from the depths of hell it is a rebellion, a repudiation of fear & evil, that can still be chosen.
Choose to bring the light. We are each responsible for our neighbors, our families, for each other. Bring kindness. Dare to be kind, allways....We can change our world through that radical act of perseverance. Let fearful people around us see that our doors are open, our tables are welcoming, that we are building any kind of bridge, every kind of bridge that welcomes exchange & a chance to see and be seen. Every choice, love or fear.
Imagine how much
falsity we could heal & transform if we choose to lift each other up at every opportunity to choose
An American is my lift into the reality that our distressed United States of 2024 is solidly founded in historic ebbs & flows, challenges and joyous celebrations. “Letters from An American” rekindle my hope and buttress my own commitment to trying harder to live the message of Liberty with renewed commitment to the Rule of Law for All of us.
Judy, I so agree. Speaking of learning, are all ballots in all states printed with the same format and order for presidential elections?
Is there an easy way to show the public before the election how to vote straight party, e.g., voting for all Democratic candidates on the ballot?
I think this would be a great service. And if it’s not true nationwide, then I wish the DNC in each voting district would inform the voters how to do this, with repeated ads prior to Election Day.
I've wondered the same thing, Anne Marie. It would be very helpful if a picture, at least, of the ballot in one's state were available before voting -- sent in the mail or distirbuted to those who wait in line or just inside each polling location. This would be convenient and speedy for those who a straight ticket.
One of the things that I've learned from HCR's Letters and from her book, "How the South Won the Civil War," a fact that has now crystallized in my thinking, is that while there are other issues in play politically (abortion, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny), the primary moving force is the effort of the oligarchs, the ultra wealthy, to control the economy and the government to meet their singular end - the accumulation of massive amounts of money. It's been that way since 1787 and earlier. Today the oligarchs use their massive amounts of money to pay for the spread of propaganda, disinformation and misinformation that lulls the unsuspecting into voting to keep the oligarchs in power, i.e., voting Republican. [Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" 2004.
I believe that America is what it is today because the Oligarchs have done two things really well. They have employed the "racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny" brilliantly to gain the support of millions of naive, less educated, angry folks. They have outsourced their jobs to line their own pockets. And then, in such a clever manner, have redirected the blame for the suffering of these groups ("fly over" country?) on to the party and people that are trying to help them. Us.
The second thing they do so well is to feed the masses just enough to keep them from truly rebelling. Just enough food and housing. And most of all, hand them toys to play with. Giant TVs to watch while they play sophisticated video games and watch fake reality TV and fake news. They have drugged us with technology. The nation is slumbering while it is being pillaged - quietly milked dry.
Thanks, Richard and Bill. Even to me who am not a student of politics or history, I see that the oligarchs feed us little people just enough to keep us from rebelling and drugged with toys, as you put it. Biden might have some money but he also fights for the average American. That's the attitude ourleaders need to have. I think Harris has it!
Excellent analysis, and very well put. I'm in the process of trying to learn more about the plan that was put into place way back in the early 70's (Powell memo) for the corporate world to 'take back' the country from the rest of us.
Very clearly said…and to continue with their massive, unregulated consumption of our “carbon budget” which “belongs” to everyone and is impacting the entire planet….
True. As a result, this beautiful country now has seashores that are rising fast, rivers that are drying up, mountaintops being sheared off in the pursuit of coal, farmlands being being bought up by corporate interests, old growth trees being cut down and the forests that are left, burning up.
Not to mention the poorer people around the globe, who are the least responsible for this problem, not being able to breathe, grow food and are starting to migrate everywhere. Immigration issues st our border are just a tiny part of what we are likely to experience over the coming decades if we don’t make fast progress in a clean, just energy transition and stepping into how much fun it could be to create a world/country that is prioritizing the common good…..
These people are our brothers and sisters. The fact that half the population of this country doesn't agree with that fact is tragic. And you are so right when you say creating a country that prioritizes the common good could be fun. It would also be rewarding. It almost always feels good to do the right thing.
I read in the last couple of weeks that the CBO did a report in 2022 about household inequality. They found 780 highest households (of oligarchs?) have more than 50% of the bottom half. I posted it at the time but now I can't find the article. I'll check The Guardian and if I find it I'll post it later today.
Heather has taught me so much......when she takes a break.....it is time to go back and re-read the mini-essays over again........there is always something ti missed!!!
For me, it's past Chats, when I want more, or past Letters. A few days ago, I went back to October, 2020, and was amazed at what I'd forgotten about THAT election cycle..and how much was the same! A history collection, indeed, which is the whole point, of course, but I'm just seeing it!
Well, if you happen to be a “Hamilton” fan, please enjoy and share this awesome VoteRiders video the current Broadway cast made to support and encourage voting: https://youtu.be/sJayRSyTsDc?feature=shared
Thank you, Claire, your appreciation of Heather mimics mine. I have been with her from beginning…and I am incredibly grateful for her wisdom expressed thru her writings. I own all her books…some gained thru friends when we lived overseas. Thru podcasts, I listen to her voice as I write postcards. I feel like Buddy is a part of my life, but I imagine as a Mainer myself, he prefers his own role just fine.
Dear Claire, It’s not an addiction, it’s the llght! We had so many dark days in the last administration. Every day was a new humiliation. This was not the country generations of Americans had aspired to be! Differences of opinion were cast as the choice between good and evil. The Trump administration (a misnomer at best) wanted us to be afraid. They sought to divide us, to encourage us to distrust our neighbor, our government, our fellow man and to fear all those who didn’t agree with the MAGA narcissism. Looking at politics through the lens of history with Heather has been a lifeline. It may have felt like an addiction, but it was enlightening. It was the light of truth and reason. We spent four years without it, in chaos, the unthinkable lies, the slander, the hypocrisy and malevolent fear they fed us daily. No wonder we craved the light. An addiction? No, SANITY.
I second that! Saw you in Portland too. Thank you! You are an amazing and gifted historian who clearly ties the history to the present while making it clear it is up to us to right the ship.
Oh, no! I can’t believe I missed this while I was in Portland!!! I am actually at the airport catching my flight back home. How about as the attendance?
Every seat was filled. Dr Richardson was spot on and I was grateful to our group here, 'Karen RN' and 'Ally (House)' for sharing the Lecture info just in time so I could go.
*thanks*
And the Oregon Historical Society (who organized the event and tickets) was the perfect host.
Some of the verses would make certain people uncomfortable, LOL! That was intentional, of course.
And Woody Guthrie didn't pen it as a patriotic song. You might be interested in the story of the song. A well-researched but short documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJb91SDqNUQ
Wow! What talent to be able to do that. My nephew is a retired caterer & he carved the most beautiful ice sculptures. And just this week here in Santa Cruz an artist created 40 pyramids out of sand on one of our beaches! There are all kinds of artistic mediums to create beauty, Heather does it with words. Even if her words give a frightening, sad, angry message the way she puts them together is always beautiful. Just think, she authors books!!!! What a wordsmith! What an artist! When you read her words they paint a picture don't they?
I agree HCR. I just took a road trip from San Francisco area to Maine this summer and was really touched by the beauty of this country and the diverse geographic terrain that we have in this Country. I could only feel gratitude that I was able to be here as a citizen. This country is a gem that we must polish and treasure. ❤️
My opinion for a long time has been that we humans should develop the capability to support life out in interstellar space. It's the same idea as Noah's Ark and the flood, but In Real Life we probably have a duty, or a moral obligation, to try to ensure that "Life finds a way", to quote Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park. I'm not entirely comfortable sharing an opinion with Elon.
The stem colleges may not acknowledge beauty as we think of the word but if you think about chemistry & how the elements interact to create such wonders as a mountain or a baby or a tree the professors there may not realize it but they are teaching us about the beauty of nature & how things fit together. Physics teaches how atoms interact & how they create the world we see around us & biology provides so many natural wonders it's hard not to see the beauty in even the tiniest one celled flora & fauna. We can tune into beauty even if it's not that obvious. Remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder so my guess is that professors & scientists see beauty every time they look through a microscope.
Yes, STEM lady here. Believe that mathematics opens one’s eye to the beauty and many universal phenomena ..music, patterns that exist throughout nature, ratios that the eye beholds as beautiful. We need all types of study to fully appreciate our world.
return, thanks for that post, it resonates with me!
I was enrolled in an experimental STEM program in hs way back in the day. (Just celebrated my 50th HS graduation anniversary) I then went to college for Medical Technology, just as the explosion of automation (Coulter Counter, for those in the know) changed the face of medicine. Much of the advancement in healthcare would not have happened without the ability to rapidly diagnose and evaluate disease states without the laboratory.
It is the work in the medical laboratory that cemented my belief in a higher being. Exactly what you mention of the wonders of nature, I'd see under the microscope while looking at human blood! A cell in mitosis, frozen in time would strike me with wonder ( and, which, btw the way, is NOT a good thing to see in a blood smear of circulating blood and thankfully was quite rare!) The beauty of even the most dreaded diseases, like the many types of leukemias! I could rhapsodize about white blood cells (platelets and rbc's too!) for another couple thousand words, but I'd bore all the readers.
Please rhapsodize on white cells, platelets leukemia. I have CLL & this have had me "run-ins' with warm hemolytic anemia & a platelet count of 2 that ended up in me spending a weekend in the hospital. So like I say rhapsodize away!! I won't get bored you can be sure of that!!!
A platelet count of 2!!!! Good heavens! Before he passed, my father had a pltc of 70K. I used to fear him having a fall or anything that would cause bleeding! Be careful with yourself!
The first thing the lab would do would be to ascertain that there was NOT a clot in the specimen, and if so, then to question whomever collected the specimen to make absolutely sure that they did not alter the specimen (ie, remove the clot). Thankfully, the phlebotomy teams and nursing staff truly understood the importance of properly collected specimens. (This was a problem early in my career.) Then, we'd carefully examine the white blood cells that are mature neutrophils for platelet satellites (a condition where the platelets cling to the edges of the white blood cell.) Last, we'd carefully examine the feather edge (the very end of the blood smear) to look for platelet clumps. The blood cell counters became so sophisticated that they could detect platelets in clumps which give a false low count, but as the pathologists used to tell me, no machine can duplicate the human eye. It took several years of working in large medical complexes to become proficient in reading blood smears. A lot of techs shunned that section of the lab, because it was so complex. I had GREAT mentors and teachers, and I LOVED looking at blood smears!
I became so specialized in Hematology that I can't say too much about the hemolytic anemia, that was more of a blood bank concern.
I don't know what your counts were, but patting myself on the back here--on occasion, I was the person who discovered CLL in a senior patient who was having a pre-op workup for some unrelated reason. The "cracked chromatin" in the nucleus of the lymphs was a key, even when the WBC or total lymph count was not notable. Generally, until the absolute lymph count became high, CLL wasn't even treated. It seemed as though it wasn't until the WBC was higher which resulted in less rbc which meant less hgb, and the patient experienced symptoms of anemia, that some CLL were diagnosed.
I would say that in my experience, CLL is one of the "best" leukemias to get, honestly, not to minimize your experiences. I seem to recall that it is very treatable, and I hope that your treatment works well for you.
I think probably the worst is Promyelocytic Leukemia. Very rare, and VERY difficult to discern the blasts from the Pro's! Acute Myelogenous Leukemia had a very poor prognosis until about a decade or so ago, when drugs came out to treat it. Childhood Leukemia is what people usually call ALL, and most of them were that--but in the last few years of my career, we saw more and more AML in children, and it had a poorer prognosis. The changes I've seen in cancer treatment is nothing short of miraculous. I wish more attention would be given to Biden's cancer moonshot. There are so many cancers and I get so frustrated when people claim the pharmaceutical industry "could cure cancer, but they won't" for financial reasons. Ridiculous! Can you imagine the profit that a cure-all pill for cancer would garner!?!? I encourage anyone to read the book "The Emperor of All Maladies" to get a better grasp on cancer.
In my career, the highest WBC I ever saw was 900K!! It looked more like a bone marrow aspiration. WBCs of over 300K did occur, and anything over 100K made for much more manual testing. When I began my career, the Coulter Counter couldn't count anything under about 4K or so, or over about 100K. By the time I retired, our machinery was accurate down to 0.1 WBC! (We even DID have WBCs of what we called "<0.1" since the computer systems would not accept a WBC of zero.)
I used to represent the lab at HS career days, and I'd set up a few microscopes. One would have a normal smear, the other would have a sickle cell patient, the last someone with an acute leukemia. I'd need to explain why the "white" cells were in shades of pink (mature neutrophils), red (eosinophils) or blue (all the lymphs and early neutrophil series) .
In med tech school, I was told that if only ONE blood test was allowed a patient, the most informative is the blood smear. Indeed--the size, shape and intensity of hue of the rbc is very telling (anemias, hereditary diseases), the number and types of white blood cells, and the poor platelets which tend to be the forgotten children of the blood smear. Kids and even adults present, were fascinated.
Good luck to you, and I hope you do return to normalcy, blood wise.
I'd be deliriously happy if STEM programs taught communications skills, and the critical thinking necessary to ask questions such as, "What problems should we spend our time solving first? And, and, what do our users really want and need from us?"
These panels are known as raised and fielded panels to nerds like me,often plain or elaborately carved and enriched.Maritime themes usually have some local context.
Thank you for once again sharing your joyful exploration and insight—it’s kind of like seeing your itinerary through the eyes of one who delights in both the big picture and the intricacies.
Thank you is just not enough! I have been following you since the beginning of this journey with your letters. I have learned so much from you. The only thing is, it has become an addiction. I check for your posts before I go to bed & first thing in the morning if I didn't see your post the night before. Enjoy your time with your hubby. Will be looking forward to my "fix" tomorrow night. :-)
I agree with you Claire! Reading Heather's letters is an addiction for me as well, but an addiction to learning is a good thing!
Also, an Addiction to the truth. We can handle the truth!
Exactly! It's been said that Americans are "divided" or "polarized." But are we really divided when 2/3 of us are on the side of truth and reality and the other 1/3 have been led down a path of falsities and conspiracy theories by perpetrators of bad faith?
Yankees and Red Sox fans are divided, each demonstrating loyalties to worthy opponents. I believe Trump supporters aren't of just another opinion, divided against an equal challenger, but a sect, peeled off from the mainstream population. We didn't split apart, they left us.
I believe they diverged from the path we chose to stay on. I continue to observe behaviors seeking to discern what the view from the fork in the road was. For now I've come to these things I wonder as I watch:
1) are you willing to assume best intentions of others ?
2) do you believe we always have a choice, even when the choice is really, really hard ?
3) do you personally act/choose out of love or fear ?
There is a great deal of generation, collective, & individual trauma in our world. People are hurt, scared, and on defense. They feel like they have to protect themselves from hurt & disappointment always.
It feels to me like Trump, JD, Ted, Ron, Lindsay, and millions of others are leading from pain. Probably no great revelation that they act from a place of victimhood. Some folks like Mitch are all about Power...at the end of the day its the same recipe of fear.
Joy can heal. Joy brings light. The ability to find Hope & Joy in the face of devastation is NOT a trivial act. Victor Frankl taught us from the depths of hell it is a rebellion, a repudiation of fear & evil, that can still be chosen.
Choose to bring the light. We are each responsible for our neighbors, our families, for each other. Bring kindness. Dare to be kind, allways....We can change our world through that radical act of perseverance. Let fearful people around us see that our doors are open, our tables are welcoming, that we are building any kind of bridge, every kind of bridge that welcomes exchange & a chance to see and be seen. Every choice, love or fear.
Imagine how much
falsity we could heal & transform if we choose to lift each other up at every opportunity to choose
Reading Letters from
An American is my lift into the reality that our distressed United States of 2024 is solidly founded in historic ebbs & flows, challenges and joyous celebrations. “Letters from An American” rekindle my hope and buttress my own commitment to trying harder to live the message of Liberty with renewed commitment to the Rule of Law for All of us.
And addiction to clear water and pure air, me thinks.
Judy, I so agree. Speaking of learning, are all ballots in all states printed with the same format and order for presidential elections?
Is there an easy way to show the public before the election how to vote straight party, e.g., voting for all Democratic candidates on the ballot?
I think this would be a great service. And if it’s not true nationwide, then I wish the DNC in each voting district would inform the voters how to do this, with repeated ads prior to Election Day.
I've wondered the same thing, Anne Marie. It would be very helpful if a picture, at least, of the ballot in one's state were available before voting -- sent in the mail or distirbuted to those who wait in line or just inside each polling location. This would be convenient and speedy for those who a straight ticket.
the website vote.411.org should give you a view of your ballot. Your state will also confirm your registration status.
One of the things that I've learned from HCR's Letters and from her book, "How the South Won the Civil War," a fact that has now crystallized in my thinking, is that while there are other issues in play politically (abortion, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny), the primary moving force is the effort of the oligarchs, the ultra wealthy, to control the economy and the government to meet their singular end - the accumulation of massive amounts of money. It's been that way since 1787 and earlier. Today the oligarchs use their massive amounts of money to pay for the spread of propaganda, disinformation and misinformation that lulls the unsuspecting into voting to keep the oligarchs in power, i.e., voting Republican. [Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" 2004.
Me too, Richard.
I believe that America is what it is today because the Oligarchs have done two things really well. They have employed the "racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny" brilliantly to gain the support of millions of naive, less educated, angry folks. They have outsourced their jobs to line their own pockets. And then, in such a clever manner, have redirected the blame for the suffering of these groups ("fly over" country?) on to the party and people that are trying to help them. Us.
The second thing they do so well is to feed the masses just enough to keep them from truly rebelling. Just enough food and housing. And most of all, hand them toys to play with. Giant TVs to watch while they play sophisticated video games and watch fake reality TV and fake news. They have drugged us with technology. The nation is slumbering while it is being pillaged - quietly milked dry.
Painful & true.
Thanks, Richard and Bill. Even to me who am not a student of politics or history, I see that the oligarchs feed us little people just enough to keep us from rebelling and drugged with toys, as you put it. Biden might have some money but he also fights for the average American. That's the attitude ourleaders need to have. I think Harris has it!
Excellent analysis, and very well put. I'm in the process of trying to learn more about the plan that was put into place way back in the early 70's (Powell memo) for the corporate world to 'take back' the country from the rest of us.
Don’t forget the massive appeal of Sports, NASCAR and Country Music with all their subliminal messaging…
Very clearly said…and to continue with their massive, unregulated consumption of our “carbon budget” which “belongs” to everyone and is impacting the entire planet….
True. As a result, this beautiful country now has seashores that are rising fast, rivers that are drying up, mountaintops being sheared off in the pursuit of coal, farmlands being being bought up by corporate interests, old growth trees being cut down and the forests that are left, burning up.
And still, mankind falls asleep in front of a TV.
Not to mention the poorer people around the globe, who are the least responsible for this problem, not being able to breathe, grow food and are starting to migrate everywhere. Immigration issues st our border are just a tiny part of what we are likely to experience over the coming decades if we don’t make fast progress in a clean, just energy transition and stepping into how much fun it could be to create a world/country that is prioritizing the common good…..
These people are our brothers and sisters. The fact that half the population of this country doesn't agree with that fact is tragic. And you are so right when you say creating a country that prioritizes the common good could be fun. It would also be rewarding. It almost always feels good to do the right thing.
I read in the last couple of weeks that the CBO did a report in 2022 about household inequality. They found 780 highest households (of oligarchs?) have more than 50% of the bottom half. I posted it at the time but now I can't find the article. I'll check The Guardian and if I find it I'll post it later today.
I will add - we were all born with a brain - some choose not to use it. Oligarch’s succeed when people do not think.
Heather has taught me so much......when she takes a break.....it is time to go back and re-read the mini-essays over again........there is always something ti missed!!!
For me, it's past Chats, when I want more, or past Letters. A few days ago, I went back to October, 2020, and was amazed at what I'd forgotten about THAT election cycle..and how much was the same! A history collection, indeed, which is the whole point, of course, but I'm just seeing it!
I wish I'd found HCR a lot sooner than I did!
Thnx for suggestion .. to go back & look at last election…
Well, if you happen to be a “Hamilton” fan, please enjoy and share this awesome VoteRiders video the current Broadway cast made to support and encourage voting: https://youtu.be/sJayRSyTsDc?feature=shared
Are you related Claire C??! Lovely post.. my sentiments exactly 👍
Thank you, Claire, your appreciation of Heather mimics mine. I have been with her from beginning…and I am incredibly grateful for her wisdom expressed thru her writings. I own all her books…some gained thru friends when we lived overseas. Thru podcasts, I listen to her voice as I write postcards. I feel like Buddy is a part of my life, but I imagine as a Mainer myself, he prefers his own role just fine.
Yes, Clair, her letters are our morning “fix”… way stronger than morning coffee!
I feel exactly the same way!! God bless her!
Thank you for representing us all. I wish I have started from the beginning as you have. I often skip NYT and WP but do not miss much.
Dear Claire, It’s not an addiction, it’s the llght! We had so many dark days in the last administration. Every day was a new humiliation. This was not the country generations of Americans had aspired to be! Differences of opinion were cast as the choice between good and evil. The Trump administration (a misnomer at best) wanted us to be afraid. They sought to divide us, to encourage us to distrust our neighbor, our government, our fellow man and to fear all those who didn’t agree with the MAGA narcissism. Looking at politics through the lens of history with Heather has been a lifeline. It may have felt like an addiction, but it was enlightening. It was the light of truth and reason. We spent four years without it, in chaos, the unthinkable lies, the slander, the hypocrisy and malevolent fear they fed us daily. No wonder we craved the light. An addiction? No, SANITY.
Thank you so much for coming to Portland! It was a history lecture that felt more like a rock concert. We love you!
What a lovely vision that is. A history lecture, like a rock concert, in Portland.
I am envious.
Me too! Please come to Albany NY, HRC! I'll take the train down to see you!
And please come to Greenville SC!
I second that! Saw you in Portland too. Thank you! You are an amazing and gifted historian who clearly ties the history to the present while making it clear it is up to us to right the ship.
Thanks Karen RN *smile* for helping me get in.
Oh, no! I can’t believe I missed this while I was in Portland!!! I am actually at the airport catching my flight back home. How about as the attendance?
Every seat was filled. Dr Richardson was spot on and I was grateful to our group here, 'Karen RN' and 'Ally (House)' for sharing the Lecture info just in time so I could go.
*thanks*
And the Oregon Historical Society (who organized the event and tickets) was the perfect host.
Enjoy your time with your mariner. Thank you for your time with us💚
This should be the national anthem. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=AePCvFrggZM
Some of the verses would make certain people uncomfortable, LOL! That was intentional, of course.
And Woody Guthrie didn't pen it as a patriotic song. You might be interested in the story of the song. A well-researched but short documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJb91SDqNUQ
Wow! What talent to be able to do that. My nephew is a retired caterer & he carved the most beautiful ice sculptures. And just this week here in Santa Cruz an artist created 40 pyramids out of sand on one of our beaches! There are all kinds of artistic mediums to create beauty, Heather does it with words. Even if her words give a frightening, sad, angry message the way she puts them together is always beautiful. Just think, she authors books!!!! What a wordsmith! What an artist! When you read her words they paint a picture don't they?
Thanks so much for helping me to be a more educated voter……It’s take a long time
Ty for sharing your wonder and awe. So refreshing! See you tomorrow!
New adventures, new horizons - Goodnight, professor. Thank you for the work that you do.
I agree HCR. I just took a road trip from San Francisco area to Maine this summer and was really touched by the beauty of this country and the diverse geographic terrain that we have in this Country. I could only feel gratitude that I was able to be here as a citizen. This country is a gem that we must polish and treasure. ❤️
Amen.
We should treat our nation and our planet as precious and irreplaceable.
Yes, but isn't Elon Musk building spaceships to take us to Planet B? /s
Probably won't be room enough for all of us, though...
My opinion for a long time has been that we humans should develop the capability to support life out in interstellar space. It's the same idea as Noah's Ark and the flood, but In Real Life we probably have a duty, or a moral obligation, to try to ensure that "Life finds a way", to quote Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park. I'm not entirely comfortable sharing an opinion with Elon.
Two Masters, off watch. Enjoy the snug harbor.
Rest up! You more than deserve it ❣️
Yes, let's acknowledge beauty!
That is something that STEM college curriculums don't touch. Beauty and all the arts make our nation special and enviable.
The stem colleges may not acknowledge beauty as we think of the word but if you think about chemistry & how the elements interact to create such wonders as a mountain or a baby or a tree the professors there may not realize it but they are teaching us about the beauty of nature & how things fit together. Physics teaches how atoms interact & how they create the world we see around us & biology provides so many natural wonders it's hard not to see the beauty in even the tiniest one celled flora & fauna. We can tune into beauty even if it's not that obvious. Remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder so my guess is that professors & scientists see beauty every time they look through a microscope.
Yes, STEM lady here. Believe that mathematics opens one’s eye to the beauty and many universal phenomena ..music, patterns that exist throughout nature, ratios that the eye beholds as beautiful. We need all types of study to fully appreciate our world.
return, thanks for that post, it resonates with me!
I was enrolled in an experimental STEM program in hs way back in the day. (Just celebrated my 50th HS graduation anniversary) I then went to college for Medical Technology, just as the explosion of automation (Coulter Counter, for those in the know) changed the face of medicine. Much of the advancement in healthcare would not have happened without the ability to rapidly diagnose and evaluate disease states without the laboratory.
It is the work in the medical laboratory that cemented my belief in a higher being. Exactly what you mention of the wonders of nature, I'd see under the microscope while looking at human blood! A cell in mitosis, frozen in time would strike me with wonder ( and, which, btw the way, is NOT a good thing to see in a blood smear of circulating blood and thankfully was quite rare!) The beauty of even the most dreaded diseases, like the many types of leukemias! I could rhapsodize about white blood cells (platelets and rbc's too!) for another couple thousand words, but I'd bore all the readers.
Please rhapsodize on white cells, platelets leukemia. I have CLL & this have had me "run-ins' with warm hemolytic anemia & a platelet count of 2 that ended up in me spending a weekend in the hospital. So like I say rhapsodize away!! I won't get bored you can be sure of that!!!
A platelet count of 2!!!! Good heavens! Before he passed, my father had a pltc of 70K. I used to fear him having a fall or anything that would cause bleeding! Be careful with yourself!
The first thing the lab would do would be to ascertain that there was NOT a clot in the specimen, and if so, then to question whomever collected the specimen to make absolutely sure that they did not alter the specimen (ie, remove the clot). Thankfully, the phlebotomy teams and nursing staff truly understood the importance of properly collected specimens. (This was a problem early in my career.) Then, we'd carefully examine the white blood cells that are mature neutrophils for platelet satellites (a condition where the platelets cling to the edges of the white blood cell.) Last, we'd carefully examine the feather edge (the very end of the blood smear) to look for platelet clumps. The blood cell counters became so sophisticated that they could detect platelets in clumps which give a false low count, but as the pathologists used to tell me, no machine can duplicate the human eye. It took several years of working in large medical complexes to become proficient in reading blood smears. A lot of techs shunned that section of the lab, because it was so complex. I had GREAT mentors and teachers, and I LOVED looking at blood smears!
I became so specialized in Hematology that I can't say too much about the hemolytic anemia, that was more of a blood bank concern.
I don't know what your counts were, but patting myself on the back here--on occasion, I was the person who discovered CLL in a senior patient who was having a pre-op workup for some unrelated reason. The "cracked chromatin" in the nucleus of the lymphs was a key, even when the WBC or total lymph count was not notable. Generally, until the absolute lymph count became high, CLL wasn't even treated. It seemed as though it wasn't until the WBC was higher which resulted in less rbc which meant less hgb, and the patient experienced symptoms of anemia, that some CLL were diagnosed.
I would say that in my experience, CLL is one of the "best" leukemias to get, honestly, not to minimize your experiences. I seem to recall that it is very treatable, and I hope that your treatment works well for you.
I think probably the worst is Promyelocytic Leukemia. Very rare, and VERY difficult to discern the blasts from the Pro's! Acute Myelogenous Leukemia had a very poor prognosis until about a decade or so ago, when drugs came out to treat it. Childhood Leukemia is what people usually call ALL, and most of them were that--but in the last few years of my career, we saw more and more AML in children, and it had a poorer prognosis. The changes I've seen in cancer treatment is nothing short of miraculous. I wish more attention would be given to Biden's cancer moonshot. There are so many cancers and I get so frustrated when people claim the pharmaceutical industry "could cure cancer, but they won't" for financial reasons. Ridiculous! Can you imagine the profit that a cure-all pill for cancer would garner!?!? I encourage anyone to read the book "The Emperor of All Maladies" to get a better grasp on cancer.
In my career, the highest WBC I ever saw was 900K!! It looked more like a bone marrow aspiration. WBCs of over 300K did occur, and anything over 100K made for much more manual testing. When I began my career, the Coulter Counter couldn't count anything under about 4K or so, or over about 100K. By the time I retired, our machinery was accurate down to 0.1 WBC! (We even DID have WBCs of what we called "<0.1" since the computer systems would not accept a WBC of zero.)
I used to represent the lab at HS career days, and I'd set up a few microscopes. One would have a normal smear, the other would have a sickle cell patient, the last someone with an acute leukemia. I'd need to explain why the "white" cells were in shades of pink (mature neutrophils), red (eosinophils) or blue (all the lymphs and early neutrophil series) .
In med tech school, I was told that if only ONE blood test was allowed a patient, the most informative is the blood smear. Indeed--the size, shape and intensity of hue of the rbc is very telling (anemias, hereditary diseases), the number and types of white blood cells, and the poor platelets which tend to be the forgotten children of the blood smear. Kids and even adults present, were fascinated.
Good luck to you, and I hope you do return to normalcy, blood wise.
Nice! Thank you !
I'd be deliriously happy if STEM programs taught communications skills, and the critical thinking necessary to ask questions such as, "What problems should we spend our time solving first? And, and, what do our users really want and need from us?"
What a lovely door panel to notice and share! Thank you, Heather.
These panels are known as raised and fielded panels to nerds like me,often plain or elaborately carved and enriched.Maritime themes usually have some local context.
🇬🇧🇺🇸😊
Thank you for once again sharing your joyful exploration and insight—it’s kind of like seeing your itinerary through the eyes of one who delights in both the big picture and the intricacies.
Rest today.
Win tomorrow!
Oh yes! Post every day till Nov 4!
I hope you get the best nights sleep!
That door carving is fantastic!
Great ocean scene in middle of Ohio!! Wonder who, what, how it got there!