Well … I finished novel number three by Jonathan Franzen. (Hence no post yesterday.) He’s a great and very stylistic storyteller! My delight in reading eighteen hundred pages of his writing is proof of that!
As I’ve said before, after getting a degree in literature at college, I plunged into non-fiction after graduation. I liked the learning non-fiction provided. I particularly loved books on science—it’s history, its heroes and about medicine.
Non-fiction enriched my conversations and augmented my knowledge about my profession and my avocational interests. But then, about fifteen years ago, I stopped reading non-fiction and dove into fiction and I’m so glad I did.
At Swim, Two Boys (Jamie O’Neil), The Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner), The Go Between (L.P. Harley), The Master(Com Tóibín) and Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese) are novels that I’ll never be without. I be re-reading them because they affected me so, so deeply.
Reading is an escape. I can understand how its come back to me given that I gave up Marijuana.
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Tomorrow I have what I think will be my last appointment with Cathy, the local mental health nurse and when I go to Vancouver early next month, I’m going to VGH to report on the tests I undertake while I’m there. I believe that there, too, I’ll end my outpatient status with the Pacific Voice Clinic.
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One wonderful thing about life here is that no one has ambition. For one thing, most people are retired from working and, therefore, from a concern for furthering their ego/reputation and from trying to influence how they are perceived. People are content to just be and ambition is limited to yard, garden and home repair work. It’s a wonderful aspect of life on this island.
And another thing I love about life here is that the local Public Works yard advertises in the local newspaper. Their ads invite residents to report potholes in the road SO, when we developed a bunch of potholes on our approach road to my little area, they were quickly repaired—and on Sunday!
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I watched a documentary about “anti-vaxxers” last night. I loathe them; I want to send them to Wuhan.
I was shocked because their campaign seems not to be based on medicine; rather, it’s about their sense of “freedom” that they feel is guaranteed by their government. Their passion is frightening as is their disregard for the contrary point of view.
Sadly, those who speak out against them come from the medical profession and they are the wrong people. They need to hear from their political leaders that they are wrong in their beliefs—they need to hear about their rights and freedom from disease, but politicians are happy to leave the fight against “anti-vaxxers” to doctors.
The worst part is that most of the adults opposing vaccination have been vaccinated and that their fight is to “protect” their children.
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