My appendix has officially been liberated from a life of insignificance and with the exception of some slight pain that normally develops after someone puts a knife in your stomach, I'm doing fine.
Not sure if it's the effect of the pain pills I'm on, the lingering thought of the Hindi nurse violating my backside earlier in the day that made me feel like I was in an X-rated movie, or if it's the experience I had of walking into my room at the Salvation Army only to find out that my locker was broken into and all my electronics (laptop, camera, video recorder) and cash were stolen that is giving me a small case of writer's block; but regardless, I don't have much of an appetite to write at the moment and so I'll just reserve this post to thank everyone for their prayers and support while I was in the hospital and let all of you know I'm doing fine.
Even if Kolkata has given me as much love in the last couple days as a Catholic teacher would have given a student trying to write with their left hand back in the old days, I can still stay without hesitation that life is still good.
Go Zags
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
CARE MORE ABOUT THE POSITIVES
Word of advice, make sure to give the lower right side of your abdomen a friendly pat on the belly every now and then to show your appendix a little appreciation, even if you don’t know what purpose it serves in your body, because if you don’t, the lil’ guy just might retaliate on you like it has on me and you’ll find yourself with an appointment the next morning to get it removed.
With my appendix having 6 yrs of experience listening in on all the grievances I had to deal with in HR in my prior employment, I would have thought it would have known my door was always open and that I would have been happy to discuss any frustrations it might have had with me, or my body, but as the Indians like to say around here, “what to do”—can’t do anything about it now. The Dalai Lama mentioned in one of the books I read, that before someone can have compassion, they must have empathy, and in light of this, I do feel sorry for the appendix as it lives a life of complete insignificance. Here you have the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, brain, gallbladder, and intestines, even the small one, that can walk away at the end of a work day and say they contributed to life, but the appendix doesn’t have that privilege as it really serves no purpose in the body as reinforced by me getting mine taken out tomorrow and being totally ok by that. Give me a life too, where all I do is exist, without the ability to live my life with a purpose, and I’m probably reacting no differently than my appendix has—get me out of here! If there’s such a thing as organ karma and it’s anything similar to Hindu or Buddhism karma, I can’t imagine what an organ had to of done in its prior lifetime to be reincarnated into the appendix, but it had to have been real bad.
As to how I feel about 9 hours before my operation if it’s of any interest to you, I’m quite at peace with the situation and the pain I’m experiencing right now is similar to what my reaction has been to the spice up here—it could have been spicier, which means the pain could be much worse. In talking with some people here the last couple days, all of whom oddly enough don’t have appendix’s, it doesn’t seem like I have a lot to worry about since the doctors here perform appendectomies just as much as people back home frequent Taco Treat and that’s a volume of operations I’m comfortable with. Since the Dr. told me I’d have to get my appendix taken out here or at home regardless, another positive I can find in this is that it will cost me about $400 to get it done here where back home it would have cost at least triple that price. CARE MORE about the positives in a situation is also a nice Dalai Lama tip if you're looking to achieve happiness in life.
Looks like I’ll be staying overnight at the hospital Thursday, but I’ll give everyone an update of good health on Friday.
Go Zags!
With my appendix having 6 yrs of experience listening in on all the grievances I had to deal with in HR in my prior employment, I would have thought it would have known my door was always open and that I would have been happy to discuss any frustrations it might have had with me, or my body, but as the Indians like to say around here, “what to do”—can’t do anything about it now. The Dalai Lama mentioned in one of the books I read, that before someone can have compassion, they must have empathy, and in light of this, I do feel sorry for the appendix as it lives a life of complete insignificance. Here you have the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, brain, gallbladder, and intestines, even the small one, that can walk away at the end of a work day and say they contributed to life, but the appendix doesn’t have that privilege as it really serves no purpose in the body as reinforced by me getting mine taken out tomorrow and being totally ok by that. Give me a life too, where all I do is exist, without the ability to live my life with a purpose, and I’m probably reacting no differently than my appendix has—get me out of here! If there’s such a thing as organ karma and it’s anything similar to Hindu or Buddhism karma, I can’t imagine what an organ had to of done in its prior lifetime to be reincarnated into the appendix, but it had to have been real bad.
As to how I feel about 9 hours before my operation if it’s of any interest to you, I’m quite at peace with the situation and the pain I’m experiencing right now is similar to what my reaction has been to the spice up here—it could have been spicier, which means the pain could be much worse. In talking with some people here the last couple days, all of whom oddly enough don’t have appendix’s, it doesn’t seem like I have a lot to worry about since the doctors here perform appendectomies just as much as people back home frequent Taco Treat and that’s a volume of operations I’m comfortable with. Since the Dr. told me I’d have to get my appendix taken out here or at home regardless, another positive I can find in this is that it will cost me about $400 to get it done here where back home it would have cost at least triple that price. CARE MORE about the positives in a situation is also a nice Dalai Lama tip if you're looking to achieve happiness in life.
Looks like I’ll be staying overnight at the hospital Thursday, but I’ll give everyone an update of good health on Friday.
Go Zags!
Monday, April 4, 2011
NICE MOVE!
I’m not quite sure who brings in the patients to Kalighat and Prem Dan, but whoever it is, I don’t think I’d like to be them right about now, when considering both of the centers are filled to their capacity and the Sisters are now beginning to turn away people, who a few weeks ago, would have been admitted no problem. With the situation as it is right now at the centers, you just have to hope that the people on the streets dying, can put a pause on dying, or better yet, push the rewind button on dying, so they can buy some time for some beds to open up again at the centers.
As for India life outside of volunteering right now, I’m still trying to adapt to the custom of waiting in lines around here. By using the term “line,” this can be misleading for the reader though, since a line would imply that the “first come first serve” concept is something that’s a part of it, but it’s really the exact opposite here as the India concept of a line is more like “first person to get to the front and step on your shoes while doing it, is the 1st person to get served.” Back home, you might very well tell the person attempting to cut in, “nice try,” but here, after seeing some of the maneuvers that the Indians perform to get to the front of the line, a “nice move” is almost more appropriate. If there’s any positive to the line experiences I’ve had here, it would be that it’s presented me with a great opportunity to improve my patience and that’s never a bad thing.
With my days becoming less at the Salvation Army, my daily chai intake has become much more, and in large part because of Mike, my “second half,” as I think he’s trying to maximize this last month we have with each other and the best way he knows how is over a cup of chai. In one of Mike’s prior sermons, he’s quoted me the scripture of “thou shalt not have any idols before God,” and if a person didn’t know any better, they just might think Mike has violated this commandment--with chai as his idol. In Heaven, if God were to confront Mike on this subject, I can already see Mike saying something like, “IDOL! No way God! You're the King of Kings! By the way, I heard the chai is amazing up here, can you point me in the direction of where the closest shop is?”
As for India life outside of volunteering right now, I’m still trying to adapt to the custom of waiting in lines around here. By using the term “line,” this can be misleading for the reader though, since a line would imply that the “first come first serve” concept is something that’s a part of it, but it’s really the exact opposite here as the India concept of a line is more like “first person to get to the front and step on your shoes while doing it, is the 1st person to get served.” Back home, you might very well tell the person attempting to cut in, “nice try,” but here, after seeing some of the maneuvers that the Indians perform to get to the front of the line, a “nice move” is almost more appropriate. If there’s any positive to the line experiences I’ve had here, it would be that it’s presented me with a great opportunity to improve my patience and that’s never a bad thing.
With my days becoming less at the Salvation Army, my daily chai intake has become much more, and in large part because of Mike, my “second half,” as I think he’s trying to maximize this last month we have with each other and the best way he knows how is over a cup of chai. In one of Mike’s prior sermons, he’s quoted me the scripture of “thou shalt not have any idols before God,” and if a person didn’t know any better, they just might think Mike has violated this commandment--with chai as his idol. In Heaven, if God were to confront Mike on this subject, I can already see Mike saying something like, “IDOL! No way God! You're the King of Kings! By the way, I heard the chai is amazing up here, can you point me in the direction of where the closest shop is?”
Saturday, April 2, 2011
WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU WENT TO TH E MOVIES?
As I write this, it happens to be shortly after India just won the World Cup against Sri Lanka, ending a 28 year drought of winning the cup. You’d think I’d be celebrating and joining hands with the horns, firecrackers, drums, Indian flags, “haaaaaaaaayyyyys”and people that I can hear and see outside my window right now, but I’m not. Maybe the age of 29 is the crossing point where a person becomes “too old for this kind of stuff” and that would explain my lack of enthusiasm to celebrate India’s wins, but I think it has more to do with team India not being my team and cricket not being my sport. I also wouldn’t even feel comfortable trying to match the emotion of the Indian people right now as trying to do that would be like me trying to match the enthusiasm of a person that just found out they won the lottery for $300 million dollars. Sure, I’m happy for them, but I’m not the one that won the lottery. All I know is that if the spirit of celebration seen in the Indian people after the World Cup win is anything close to what I’d feel if Gonzaga won the national championship in basketball, I can only hope this is something I can experience in my lifetime.
With the weather here starting to get hotter and it only taking about an hour outside now to leave the backside of my shirt as wet as a bed sheet of a 2 year old, I’ve started to become quite the frequent customer at the movie cinema since it’s a great venue to escape the heat and get some air conditioning for a couple hours. When I say frequent customer too, let’s just say I went to “The Fighter” on back to back days and that by the way is another 1st for me, and not because I went to the same movie on back to back days, but because I went to a Mark Walberg movie on back to back days. Come to think of it, me going to a Mark Walberg movie on back to back days at the theater just might be a 1st for anyone and that might be something that could get me in the World’s Book of Guineas Records. If you can deal with the F word being said about 30 times in a movie, I’d highly recommend “The Fighter” since the story is quite inspiring and to give Mark Walberg credit, he’s didn’t do a bad job in this one.
On my second trip to “The Fighter” I also took with me Mike, Johnny, and “Tubby” from the senior citizen center and they enjoyed the show as much as any person would that hasn’t gone to the movies in 20 yrs, as was the case for them. In asking them why they didn’t go to the movies more often, the response I got was “because it’s too expensive” and as reminder to all of you, the cost of a movie ticket here equates to $1 U.S. Back home we have kids complaining because they can’t get both a bag of popcorn and a box of candy when they go to the movies, and here, you have some people that will never even have the opportunity to see a movie in a theater. Just makes you think a bit.
Go VCU!
With the weather here starting to get hotter and it only taking about an hour outside now to leave the backside of my shirt as wet as a bed sheet of a 2 year old, I’ve started to become quite the frequent customer at the movie cinema since it’s a great venue to escape the heat and get some air conditioning for a couple hours. When I say frequent customer too, let’s just say I went to “The Fighter” on back to back days and that by the way is another 1st for me, and not because I went to the same movie on back to back days, but because I went to a Mark Walberg movie on back to back days. Come to think of it, me going to a Mark Walberg movie on back to back days at the theater just might be a 1st for anyone and that might be something that could get me in the World’s Book of Guineas Records. If you can deal with the F word being said about 30 times in a movie, I’d highly recommend “The Fighter” since the story is quite inspiring and to give Mark Walberg credit, he’s didn’t do a bad job in this one.
On my second trip to “The Fighter” I also took with me Mike, Johnny, and “Tubby” from the senior citizen center and they enjoyed the show as much as any person would that hasn’t gone to the movies in 20 yrs, as was the case for them. In asking them why they didn’t go to the movies more often, the response I got was “because it’s too expensive” and as reminder to all of you, the cost of a movie ticket here equates to $1 U.S. Back home we have kids complaining because they can’t get both a bag of popcorn and a box of candy when they go to the movies, and here, you have some people that will never even have the opportunity to see a movie in a theater. Just makes you think a bit.
Go VCU!
Friday, April 1, 2011
TIME AND LIFE SURE DO LIKE TO FLY DON'T THEY
With me landing in India early January, me now being 1 year older since my arrival, and it now being the afternoon of April 1st as I write this update, it just reminds me how much “time” flies. Not sure if “time” is on a frequent flyer program like I am, but it would be quite foolish if it wasn’t since it seems to be flying nearly every minute of the day, and without even offering a goodbye or farewell hug no less upon leaving, which isn’t very nice of it when considering how close of friends time and I have become over the years.
Not sure if “time” is the type of passenger that prefers 1st class or coach, window seat or aisle, but whether it's 5A or 25D that “time” takes a seat in for its next flight, I know it doesn’t have to worry about who’s sitting in 5B or 25E right next to it, since that seat is always reserved for its favorite flight companion in “life.” I’ll admit, knowing this makes me a bit jealous about “time,” since “life” is as beautiful of a passenger a person can have sitting next to them, the type that would leave a guy boasting to his buddy after the flight saying, “you’ll never guess who I got to sit next to on my flight.”
With so many places to see and things to do in the world and so little opportunity to do it, I don’t blame “time” and “life” for flying so much because I would too, if I could afford it. All I hope is that with all this flying around that “time” and “life” are doing, that they’ll occasionally look out their window of the plane and enjoy the scenery, unlike other passengers I’ve seen, that tend to be content with just sleeping their way through the entire flight only to find out afterward that they missed the opportunity to see such things as the Himalayas.
Not sure if “time” is the type of passenger that prefers 1st class or coach, window seat or aisle, but whether it's 5A or 25D that “time” takes a seat in for its next flight, I know it doesn’t have to worry about who’s sitting in 5B or 25E right next to it, since that seat is always reserved for its favorite flight companion in “life.” I’ll admit, knowing this makes me a bit jealous about “time,” since “life” is as beautiful of a passenger a person can have sitting next to them, the type that would leave a guy boasting to his buddy after the flight saying, “you’ll never guess who I got to sit next to on my flight.”
With so many places to see and things to do in the world and so little opportunity to do it, I don’t blame “time” and “life” for flying so much because I would too, if I could afford it. All I hope is that with all this flying around that “time” and “life” are doing, that they’ll occasionally look out their window of the plane and enjoy the scenery, unlike other passengers I’ve seen, that tend to be content with just sleeping their way through the entire flight only to find out afterward that they missed the opportunity to see such things as the Himalayas.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
NOW THAT'S A RIVALRY!
If you were curious as to what the Dalai Lama’s secret to happiness was in the book “The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World,” but you don’t want to read the 330 pages to find out what it is, I’ll be a good friend and share the secret with you, just as long as you either, one, don’t tell anyone, or two and the more likely scenario, when you do tell someone else, just make sure to give them the “you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone” line and we should be fine. And the secret is....(drum roll), live your life with compassion. For those of you thinking the answer would have been more along the lines of what company will be the next Google, I apologize, but as a reminder, we’re talking about happiness here, not early retirement and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather work until I’m 80 and be happy then retired at 40 and miserable.
Speaking about retirement, what’s the rush anyways? Is work really that bad? Or maybe, it’s not that work is that bad, but retirement is just really that good, even though I can’t say I’ve met a lot of retirees doing somersaults through the rest of their life. Some might say it’s the freedom part of retirement that makes it so desirable, but aren’t I just as free now to do what I want as I would be when I’m retired? There was a time, where I too, was bit with the early retirement bug, but where I’m at in life now, I’m beginning to question the value of an ambition like that as I think people should care less about early retirement from work and CARE MORE about early retirement from unhappiness. Maybe living by this philosophy will keep me working until I go to the grave, but as long as I’m happy, I’m ok with that.
I don’t believe I’ve mentioned the fact that the World Cup of Cricket has been going on over here for about the last month, but it’s something I should probably mention since it’s a pretty big deal, especially since India has made what I’d like to call the “Final Four” of cricket, as they join Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand as the remaining combatants. Just like “March Madness” this year, the World Cup of Cricket has seen its fair share of upsets as the defending champs in Australia lost out in the quarterfinals and South Africa lost out as well. Tomorrow, India goes up against Pakistan in a loser out semi-final game, and the animosity these two teams have against each other makes the animosity Gonzaga and the Huskies of Washington have for one another in basketball seem like more of a romance, and not the celebrity kind that always seems to fizzle out, but more like the kind captured in the movie “The Notebook.” The rivalry between Pakistan and India isn't like your typical sports rivalry back home either, where all it takes for me in college basketball to dislike the other team is a coach that greases his hair back and a few players that are "one and dones" who wear headbands. Who could that team be? With Pakistan and India though, the rivalry is much more legit as these two countries have had a history of conflict with each other dating back since 1947. Just to put things into perspective, people have died over the tension between India and Pakistan in past years. Of course, I'll be rooting for India in tomorrow's match, but regardless of what team wins, I'm just glad I can say Gonzaga vs. the Huskies isn't like the rivalry of India vs. Pakistan in cricket, because if it was, I probably would have already died from an aneurysm by now since just seeing the color of Husky purple has been enough to almost do that to me in the past.
Go India!
Speaking about retirement, what’s the rush anyways? Is work really that bad? Or maybe, it’s not that work is that bad, but retirement is just really that good, even though I can’t say I’ve met a lot of retirees doing somersaults through the rest of their life. Some might say it’s the freedom part of retirement that makes it so desirable, but aren’t I just as free now to do what I want as I would be when I’m retired? There was a time, where I too, was bit with the early retirement bug, but where I’m at in life now, I’m beginning to question the value of an ambition like that as I think people should care less about early retirement from work and CARE MORE about early retirement from unhappiness. Maybe living by this philosophy will keep me working until I go to the grave, but as long as I’m happy, I’m ok with that.
I don’t believe I’ve mentioned the fact that the World Cup of Cricket has been going on over here for about the last month, but it’s something I should probably mention since it’s a pretty big deal, especially since India has made what I’d like to call the “Final Four” of cricket, as they join Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand as the remaining combatants. Just like “March Madness” this year, the World Cup of Cricket has seen its fair share of upsets as the defending champs in Australia lost out in the quarterfinals and South Africa lost out as well. Tomorrow, India goes up against Pakistan in a loser out semi-final game, and the animosity these two teams have against each other makes the animosity Gonzaga and the Huskies of Washington have for one another in basketball seem like more of a romance, and not the celebrity kind that always seems to fizzle out, but more like the kind captured in the movie “The Notebook.” The rivalry between Pakistan and India isn't like your typical sports rivalry back home either, where all it takes for me in college basketball to dislike the other team is a coach that greases his hair back and a few players that are "one and dones" who wear headbands. Who could that team be? With Pakistan and India though, the rivalry is much more legit as these two countries have had a history of conflict with each other dating back since 1947. Just to put things into perspective, people have died over the tension between India and Pakistan in past years. Of course, I'll be rooting for India in tomorrow's match, but regardless of what team wins, I'm just glad I can say Gonzaga vs. the Huskies isn't like the rivalry of India vs. Pakistan in cricket, because if it was, I probably would have already died from an aneurysm by now since just seeing the color of Husky purple has been enough to almost do that to me in the past.
Go India!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
THE BEGGAR'S DILEMMA
In the last 2 days, Kalighat has taken in two new patients in need of immediate medical care as one was involved in an accident that took most of his right hand off and the other patient had serious head trauma that occurred from falling off a roof. Since I hadn’t been “up close and personal” with a patient who suffered from what I’d consider to be a “horror film” kind of injury for awhile, I was curious if my response would be the same as the last time, that response being almost passing out, or if I’d developed a little bit more of a toughness since my last case. If my reaction while holding down the legs of the head trauma patient while the Sisters stitched his face back together was similar to how I responded to the patient with the hand injury, I would have been able to say I gained more of a toughness in dealing with these situations, but since it left me almost about to throw up, it reminded me that I still had a ways to go before this stuff was “business as usual.”
Maybe it’s for my own peace of mind, but I’ve also tried to use my experience with the head trauma patient as a reminder to myself that I still have a heart for the Kolkata people since the experience I had today where a homeless person yelled at me for not buying him and his daughter any food, made me think twice about this.
Every person in their own community is confronted with what I’d consider to be the “beggar's dilemma”...to help or not to help, and here in Kolkata, this dilemma seems to be on a much greater scale and it carries about 1,000 more tons of weight on your conscience. Does this child clinging to my shirt for a block have no mom or dad like she claims or is she just like the boy I encountered last week who initially approached me with a limp and tears in his eye only to leave shortly thereafter with a skip and a smile once he realized I wouldn’t give him anything. Did the guy asking me for money really need it for a train ticket to get back home like he said he did, or was he, like some of the beggars here, just looking for money to get the next fix. Should I stop and bandage the wound on this guy’s leg or will he, like others do, just take the dressing off once I leave, since the wound was self-inflicted and intended to tug at the pedestrian’s heart a little bit more as they walk by him. If I buy the lady holding her baby some food, will she in fact eat it, or like others, just sell the food back to the store once I walk around the corner. Should I help all, one, some, or none? Whose need is legit and whose need isn’t? Sadly, I’ve been quick to use the Sister’s advice of not helping the beggars as my conscience’s scapegoat, but when considering that I’m writing about this topic in my blog and questioning what side of the line I should be on with respect to the “beggar’s dilemma,” that should be enough to tell you how poor of a scapegoat the Sister’s advice has been for me.
On a more uplifting note, the Zag Ladies have advanced to the Elite 8 this year in basketball and are the highest seed in tournament history to advance this far. Not only would a Final Four birth for the Lady Zags be a great achievement for the ladies themselves and the university, but I think an achievement like that can only benefit the mens team as well, since it will motivate them to step their game up and get their own Final Four banner raised next to the ladies.
Go Lady Zags!
Maybe it’s for my own peace of mind, but I’ve also tried to use my experience with the head trauma patient as a reminder to myself that I still have a heart for the Kolkata people since the experience I had today where a homeless person yelled at me for not buying him and his daughter any food, made me think twice about this.
Every person in their own community is confronted with what I’d consider to be the “beggar's dilemma”...to help or not to help, and here in Kolkata, this dilemma seems to be on a much greater scale and it carries about 1,000 more tons of weight on your conscience. Does this child clinging to my shirt for a block have no mom or dad like she claims or is she just like the boy I encountered last week who initially approached me with a limp and tears in his eye only to leave shortly thereafter with a skip and a smile once he realized I wouldn’t give him anything. Did the guy asking me for money really need it for a train ticket to get back home like he said he did, or was he, like some of the beggars here, just looking for money to get the next fix. Should I stop and bandage the wound on this guy’s leg or will he, like others do, just take the dressing off once I leave, since the wound was self-inflicted and intended to tug at the pedestrian’s heart a little bit more as they walk by him. If I buy the lady holding her baby some food, will she in fact eat it, or like others, just sell the food back to the store once I walk around the corner. Should I help all, one, some, or none? Whose need is legit and whose need isn’t? Sadly, I’ve been quick to use the Sister’s advice of not helping the beggars as my conscience’s scapegoat, but when considering that I’m writing about this topic in my blog and questioning what side of the line I should be on with respect to the “beggar’s dilemma,” that should be enough to tell you how poor of a scapegoat the Sister’s advice has been for me.
On a more uplifting note, the Zag Ladies have advanced to the Elite 8 this year in basketball and are the highest seed in tournament history to advance this far. Not only would a Final Four birth for the Lady Zags be a great achievement for the ladies themselves and the university, but I think an achievement like that can only benefit the mens team as well, since it will motivate them to step their game up and get their own Final Four banner raised next to the ladies.
Go Lady Zags!
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