Here I am...I'm back. Back in Seattle, back at work (although a different hospital now...same poop, different county), back in my house with my wee doggies. I was thinking maybe I should start a whole new blog, since I am no longer working night shift and I'm doing doing very much knitting in the summer time, so I'm hardly knitting in the dark anymore. But how many blogs should one girl have? So for now I'll just keep this one, since I'm rather be working night shift and I'm sure I will knit more again, and I'm essentially lazy and can't be bothered at the moment to set up a new blog. Maybe next time I leave the country on another grand adventure, I'll make a new one :)
So anyway. Here I am but I don't really have much to say. And is anyone out there anymore? I have some tales from the ICU to tell...but I'll save those for later. For now, I just have an idea of what I what would do if I ran the world. Now, believe me, I rarely get these ideas, because I'm pretty much happy to let the lunatics run the world and to hole up on my desert island with my little dogs, a bottle of rum, and a Bob Dylan CD. My very own tiny version of isolationism, as enacted by the Republic of Rosebuttons. BUT I have one little request to make, to the people who are running the world: Everyone who is climbing or wants to climb Mt Everest...? Stop it. Get off the mountain. It's officially closed. Forever. First of all, people, why? Because it's there? To prove something? That's the lamest most egocentric reason of all. There are lots of things that we humans can do, or might want to do, but we shouldn't. And if you have something to prove, why don't you go to Africa and vaccinate some babies, or take over FEMA, or adopt an abandoned puppy, or just let that guy merge in front of you on the highway without giving him the finger? But I digress. As Einstein said, "Only two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity. But I'm not certain about the universe." So if you have something inane to prove to yourself or your peeps, go ahead and do it, it's none of my business. BUT...here's where I get pissed off: When, in the course of reaching your self-centered and pointless goal, it becomes acceptable to eschew all implicit moral behaviors, to stop being human. There is an acceptable code, on the mountain, that if another climber can no longer walk, you leave him or her to die. The reasoning is rational and cold: You hardly have enough energy to walk by yourself, it would be impossible to save another person by carrying them off the mountain as well. Implicit in this code is the idea that everyone is completely on their own on that mountain, no one can save anyone else, or even help anyone else. So climbers routinely walk by dying and dead people on their quest for their 15 minutes at the top of the world. And it is ok, because that's the code, and other people do it. BUT, as it turns out, there is no pot of gold on top of that mountain, there is not even a cure for cancer, or AIDS, or the secret to peace in the Middle East. There is not even very much oxygen up there. Yeah, perhaps there is a personal accomplishment, but if you're looking for accomplishment, try undergoing and surviving cancer treatment. Or flying cross-country with a one-year-old by yourself. For fuck's sake, just learn to change a flat tire. What I'm trying to say in my roundabout way, is that I have a huge problem with a useless activity that allows people to justify foresaking their own humanity and their duty to be human towards other people. Now, I'm the first person to snark at your whinging, snotty child on an airplane, or call you some choice four-letter words if you cut me off on the highway without your turn signal, and I might even whisper something about your poor judgment in selecting spandex shorts to my equally snarky friends, because I'm the first to admit I'm not the warmest or nicest person, and in general I don't like most people. BUT, if I found you lying on the ground, and you needed help, I would stop and use my sock to tourniquet your gaping flesh would or just hold your hand so you weren't alone, not because I'm a nice person, but because I'm a human being, and that's why we're here. And maybe I didn't climb to the highest point on the planet, but if that one other person 's life was a bit better because I was where I was, then that's okay. So, you crazy Everest climbers, get off that mountain. I think you left something down here on Earth...it might be your humanity.
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2 comments:
Glad to see you back rosebuttons! Can't wait to hear your stories about arabia.....
Like your comment about Shark Week. I agree that the news can be a day-buster.
Normally, I'd send you an e-mail to ask this question rather than a post but I couldn't find your e-mail address. So, I was wondering if you'd be interested in posting any articles from the Nursezone.com website. There are lots of relevant articles for todays nurse. The great news is that using nursezone content on your site is no cost. We'd just like to have a link back to our site for those of your bloggers interested in finding a community of nurses, CE opportunities, travel nursing and other relevant nurse aids. A partial example of a nursing article is below:
Nurse Overcomes Cancer—Twice—to Provide Care to Others
By Nancy Deutsch, RN, contributor
Many people yearn to make nursing their career, but few have to battle the odds like Valerie Bush.
The Independence, Kentucky, woman, who was a medical technician for six years and a nurse’s aide “on and off forever,” waited until her children were raised to return to nursing school. When she finally entered the Gateway Community and Technical College, it was unbelievably stressful. Not only was the single mother dealing with her course work, but her father died, and her youngest daughter was dealing with medical problems, including bipolar disease.
Bush, now 42 years old, was “disgustingly healthy when I started” school in 2004, but quite overweight, and she started to lose a lot of the extra girth.
“I lost massive amounts of weight in just a few months,” she recalled. “I was a pretty big girl. I lost 100 pounds.”
At first, Bush chalked up the weight loss and constant belching to stress, but when she shed all the weight, she found a lump in her breast. “I decided to see a doctor over break.”
Bush was diagnosed with DCIS, and beneath that, metastatic breast cancer.
“I lost everything in a week,” Bush said. The diagnosis sent her daughter off the deep end, upset her boyfriend, and meant she had to stop the classes she had waited so long to take.
“As a nurse, you think you know what a cancer diagnosis entails,” she said. “But you don’t. It affects every single thing in your life.” … (more article to come)
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Let me know what you think.
Tracy (nursezoneportal@earthlink.net)
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