Author: gozzter
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The Solopsist
I have always been influenced by something Lewis Thomas, the American polymath writer-physician once said at a lecture I attended. He felt he would be better served by a doctor who had read Shakespeare than someone who had merely focussed all of his formative years on learning medicine. His point, I think, was that to…
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The Goddess of Small Things
Every office needs a goddess. Every doctor needs to see one now and then to keep things in perspective. Separate the two Magisteria. I have a goddess –not self-professed to be sure, but in a pinch, self-acknowledged. She comes to see me once a year or so, for reasons that are not at all transparent. It…
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Are We There Yet?
There are some things you just have to get right -or else. But, or else what..? Continuing exposure, even to the most egregious injustices risks dulling the senses; eliciting not indignant shouts but shrugs, excuses not action. Accommodation. There are benefits that accrue to adaptation, of course –if one lives next to a pulp mill,…
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A Gynaecologic Chapel
I’ve always been fascinated with the Sistine Chapel in Rome –well, in the Vatican City to be more Catholically correct- but perhaps not for all the reasons you might assume. I have to confess –sorry, poor choice of words- I have to admit that I have little interest in the fact that it is in…
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The Size of the Dog
In the hazy light of retrospect I can still see her lying there on the hospital bed scowling at me. She was clutching her baby as if she’d won it in a game in which she’d cheated. In fact, I suppose she had… But I’m getting ahead of myself. Way ahead. I’d first met Mary…
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Perchance to Dream
There’s something about complexity that I find intimidating; impressive as it may be, I don’t crave the complicated. I don’t even understand it. Of course, that may be part of its fascination for some: a facet of the instinct that leads to worship of that which is mysterious. Unknowable to the uninitiated. The awe of…
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Menstrual Taboos
Culture shapes behaviour, attitudes and beliefs -or is it the other way around? The chicken or the egg? This has puzzled me since I was a child wondering why everybody I knew wore jeans but in pictures the people living in, say, India did not. And the members of my family –uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins- all…
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The Begging Bowl
We all have needs; we are all mendicants at some level. Sometimes subtle: a smile that begs response, a look that hopes for more; sometimes obvious: a verbal request, or even a sign that solicits aid. But sometimes it is more blatant. Glaring. Almost rude. I was once accused of that –of shameless, brazen panhandling. And right…
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