Mystery Photo 14

Can you recognize this famous entrance to a famous church? I thought this is an appropriate Mystery Photo for the upcoming Christian Holiday Season. Not only is this a famous church in a famous city, but there is something about this facade that is unusual. Can you guess the unusual presence here and why it is here?

A Painful Buddhist Lesson Learned! Lost Ring!

Buddhist monks at the Temple at Sarnath, India

 
  For the past 10 or 15 years I have been attending a weekly Spirit Mind Body Group which meets once a week for meditation and to study spirituality of all persuasions. We take turns reading or presenting something of spiritual interest or leading a discussion in the spiritual field. There is a strong Buddhist bent to this group both because several members are Buddhist and have studied Buddhist philosophy extensively and because we meet at and are often led by the local President of the Mindfulness Practice Center of Milwaukee. I have been keeping a blog of our weekly meetings of Spirit Mind Body Group. Through all of these avenues I have learned a little about Buddhist thought.  Though it is difficult if not impossible to contain Buddhist theory in a nutshell, let me at least try to give you an idea of how a recent occurrence in my life has clarified and strengthened these ideas for me. Then I will tell you about the occurrence and how I have so far survived it.
     The Four Noble Truths as put forth by the Buddha are as follows: 1) Life here on earth involves suffering. There is pain, illness, losses of things and people and finally of our own life. 2) The source of this suffering is due to clinging and attachment to things and ideas that are impermanent and are only in our lives for a short while and do not carry on into future lives. We must not become attached emotionally to impermanence. 3) There is a way to overcome and relieve this suffering. 4) The Eightfold path if practiced and perfected will enable the practitioner to learn the truth of existence and will allow the sufferer to attain nirvana and relief from the karmic cycle of existence and suffering. The Eightfold path includes the practice of wisdom described as Right View and Right Intention. It includes the practice of ethical conduct described in Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. Thirdly the path includes direction for mental development in the Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. In our Spirit Mind Body Group we have discussed this attachment to things and ideas as being very hard to let go of. Indeed it is human to have these attachments to things, to our lives, to our homes, to our cars, to our ideas, to our personalities, to our individual selves. These must be let go of to realize the truth of existence and to reach nirvana.

Hit Read on to find out what happened to me.

A memorable patient!

     I announced about a year ago that I would use the Caduceus to announce postings that are medically related, or that relate to my life as a physician. (Posting for Nov 10, 2010: An Obituary Tells a Story). After that posting, I went on to research the Caduceus and discovered I was way off base. The symbol that I thought represented medicine was not the Caduceus or Staff of Hermes but rather the above symbol, the Rod of Asclepius. (Posting July 7, 2011: Medical Confusions: Staff of Hermes vs Rod of Asclepius). So from here forth, I will use the above correct symbol of medicine when my posting relates to that topic.
     Read on for a story of one of my more memorable patients.

A Big Turkish Shindig!

     I want to tell you about the performance/dinner party that I held in my home a couple weeks ago on Halloween eve, October 29. This turned out to be a very interesting evening, I think.

     This all started when Sky Schultz, a member of my Spirit Mind Body Group did a performance at one of our meetings of his look at Rumi poetry combined with a light and humorous presentation. Sky has a long repertoire of humorous presentations. We saw one on Rumi and a second one on the pithy writings of Mark Twain. During one of these presentations, Sky cooperated with Karen Kolberg who recites, or really acts out Hafez poetry from Persia. After many complements on these two performances at our group meeting, Sky expressed a desire to get back into his performance artistry. I decided that our home and our recent experience with a trip to Turkey could provide a very adequate venue for Sky and Karen's return to the public stage. I began to plan.

     I knew I wanted to invite past and present members of the Spirit Mind Body Group. But I also wanted to include some doctor friends with whom I used to work. Unfortunately many of the those I wished to include had other obligations for the evening, but I still managed a small group of  docs and their guests. I put together a very attractive invitation with a monochrome photo of Rumi's tomb and museum in Konya, Turkey which we had visited during our recent trip to Turkey. I wanted people to get to our home in time to see the lake in the light. We decided that we would have two performances, each about an hour long, one in the late afternoon, and one in the evening, preceded by appetizers, with dinner in between the two performances and dessert and coffee after the second performance. This would allow people great flexibility: they could come for the first performance and dinner, or dinner and the second performance, or even later for the second performance and dessert afterwards. Or they could come and stay for the whole shebang. There would be time for socialization before, between and after the performances. I wanted people to be able to sit down to eat and to sit to hear the performances so this required some shuffling of chairs back and forth between the dining table and the great room where we set Sky and Karen up to perform.

     I asked for a $15.00 to $20.00 donation to be directed entirely to the performers. I was familiar with this type of request based on several musical performance parties that we have attended. People are usually quite willing to contribute especially if they know the performer will receive it all. I donated my home and my considerable time and money to purchase, prepare and serve the food at the various times.

     I found a place on the Internet with various Turkish recipes and utilized several of them. I started making up those things I could do ahead about 2 weeks before the event. Also starting that far ahead, I had some outdoor work to do around our house to clean up some weeds and deadhead some of my perennials. A fall garden can look nice with the changing leaves and a few chrysanthemums around. But I had not done much work on my garden since the big push that occurs in June. A little tidying up went a long way to welcoming my guests as they strolled up the driveway and to the front door. As always several wanted to walk through my beds and gardens to see what was blooming and I think a couple or two even walked out to the bluff over Lake Michigan. This always happens so I knew this clean up would make my beds that much more enjoyable.

     The site on the Internet with the Turkish recipes is: Binnur's Turkish Cookbook  http://www.turkishcookbook.com/

From this site I used the recipes for Roasted nuts, for Turkish couscous (bulgur), for chicken shish kabob, and iskender. For dessert I used the recipe for Stuffed apricot dessert.

     This party was a lot of work for me. First there was the organizing and inviting. Then the preparation of the gardens and house. And then there was the cooking! This was more cooking than I had done in a long time. I planned this so that I could do as much of the food preparations ahead of time. About 10 days before the party I roasted the nuts and put them in tins. I also made the chicken kabobs and froze them. Starting 5 days before the party, I put together the tenderloin and ground beef to make the iskendar and froze it. It turned out that the recipe in Binnur's cookbook intended the meat to be a much smaller piece than mine. It became very difficult to thinly slice the frozen tenderloin so I could saute it. That took a lot of effort that last day. I made the bulgur ahead of time and only added the fresh scallions and tomatoes that last morning. The vegetable salad had to be all cut up that morning of also. I was able to make the stuffed apricots ahead of time. That recipe called for dried apricots that you rehydrate overnight. I stuffed them with mascarpone cheese instead of clotted cream which was called for because I thought that would stand up to making ahead better, and indeed I think it did. I purchased a large fresh fruit tray, and I also purchased the baklava. My husband made the hummous the day of the party, and I had toasted the pita pieces with olive oil and za'atar a couple days ahead of time. As you can see all these dishes and condiments were planned and orchestrated in a rotating fashion starting about 10 days ahead of the party. Never have I done such a complex menu.

   Click read on for an explanation of the menu that I put out for people explaining and documenting the authentic Turkish food.

Nov 19, 2011: On Growing Old, On Being a Patient from Annals of Internal Medicine, 2002.

     I have been delinquent in writing on this post for a while. I have no excuse. No recent lengthy travel like my last gaps. We are all healthy. I was just lazy and decided to take a break. It happens.
     I decided in order to get back into the swing of regular writings, I would take it easy this time and just use what someone else has written. The source of this item is a place where many of you probably do not read: Annals of Internal Medicine, March 19, 2002, Vol 136, No. 6. 
Written by Myrtle Lundberg, Duluth, Minnesota 55805. Written for a regular feature called: On Being a Patient. Printed by permission of Annals of Internal Medicine.

The Pack Rat Gene

     The pack rat gene runs in my family. My parents both had it, and I have it as well. I admit it. Recently I was visiting my mother and rampaged a little bit in her basement which is full of boxes of stuff. Some is clearly junk and needs to be discarded, but among these boxes there are treasures as well. On one stack of boxes were 3 small boxes, I brought up to see what they contained. One narrow box contained a Valentine from my father to my mother -- indeed a very fancy one that he gave or sent to her during their early marriage. Another box contained the Christmas cards my father had received the first Christmas he was in the Army in Chatanooga, Tennessee during World War II. And the third box is what I would like to reference in this post. It contained the letters sent to my mother by a British woman during the World War II years. They contain interesting insights into those times that I would like to highlight here.
     Apparently when Mom was a sophomore in high school, one of the teachers distributed some addresses of similar aged students in England that wanted penpals. Mom began writing to one Dorothy Dampier of Blackheathe, England, a little town that is really a neighborhood of London. Some of mom's friends also began to write to each other from the same town to town. These letters continued from 1932 to 1946, through several newsworthy events in addition to World War II. The early letters are typical teenage girl to teenage girl conversation. Later they center on boyfriends and work life. Then both girls marry. My father shipped out for England and was stationed outside London until July, 1944, when his 181st Engineers were sent to France and came ashore on Omaha Beach, a month after D Day. While he was near London, he traveled to see his wife's penpal Dorothy. He only had an address. He was walking up her street when a young woman stopped him in the street. It was Dorothy. She was on her way to the train to go to work. She recognized him from his pictures and of course, he was wearing a US Army uniform. Later in letters Dorothy wrote about the Blitzkrieg, and the blackouts and how hard things were during the war. Each women had child, in my mom's case, me. Mom sent ladies hosiery, cards, newspaper articles, sugar and other things that were in short supply during the wartime. Dorothy sent me (as a toddler)  a small gold toned bracelet which I still have in my jewelry box. Dorothy's letters reflect historical things such as King Edward's coronation, then King Edward's abdication to marry his commoner divorcee wife, then the coronation of his brother, Albert, who became King George VI.
      My husband and I recently saw the movie, The King's Speech. I learned that Albert, who became King George VI had a severe stuttering problem. The movie details how King George worked with a speech therapist to overcome this problem. The movie depicts Albert ("Bertie", as his therapist called him) practicing to give the speech that notifies England that they are going to war against Germany. In these letters to my mother, Dorothy remarks that she thought King George sounded very nervous during this speech. Actually as we saw in the movie, "Bertie" was working very hard to get through this speech without stuttering to badly. It was quite interesting to put our "movie" knowledge with this historical letter.
     Interestingly, I have found Dorothy on the Internet. She is still living (I think) though she is listed as living in a nursing home or group home that is designed for Alzheimer patients. I am planning on calling a phone number listed. Maybe I can leave a message for her son who is also listed as living in the same town. It is certainly amazing what can be accomplished on Internet these days. I will let you readers know if I can make some connection. That would truly be amazing.
     

For Yom Kippur 2011 -- Kol Nidre

Memorial stained glass behind The Great Synagogue, Budapest

     In honor of the Jewish High Holidays:  L'Shanah Tovah and Yom Kippur, I have posted the history and several versions of Kol Nidrei (All Vows), the musical recitation that opens the prayer services on Yom Kippur eve. I certainly do not claim to have great knowledge about this topic, but I have always been tremendously moved by the musical piece. Here you can learn along with me about its origins, history and reason for survival for at least 15 centuries. Accompanying the words are my husband's photographs of The Great Synagogue or the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary. This synagogue is the largest in Eurasia and second largest in the world, second only to El Emmanuel in New York City. Also view some photos of the wall of the ghetto from WWII Budapest and some monuments from the grounds and the neighborhood of The Great Synagogue. Hit read on to view and learn about all of these treasures.