Tag Archives: Cutting for Stone

Dramatic Irony & a Medical Emergency

As I followed the ambulance taking my mother to the emergency room, I saw myself playing a scene from Verghese’s “Cutting for Stone.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Our National Health Requires Immigrants

Monday As we watch the Trump administration trample all over American values with its treatment of asylum seekers at our southern border, it’s worth reminding ourselves how much we rely on immigrants. I’ve been reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, an Ethiopian immigrant of Indian parentage, who at one point has a character expound […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

The Seductive Lure of Power

Monday Pundits are puzzled why respectable people yield to the lure of Donald Trump and join his administration, even though they invariably emerge tainted. I don’t have in mind those grifters like campaign chair Paul Manafort, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price, or EPA’s Scott Pruitt, who were corrupt […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

The President Is Reading Novels? Good!

Rightwing attacks on Obama for including novels in his summer reading are all wrong. We want our presidents to be balanced and grounded, and good fiction helps one remember what is really important in life.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Reading Literature, A Spiritual Practice

McEntyre notes that, in the ancient practice of lectio divina, one sought to maintain “spiritual focus and equanimity” by “reading Scripture slowly, listening for the word or phrase that speaks to you, pausing to consider prayerfully the gift being offered in those words for this moment.” Ditto, the author says, for reading literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed