got the call

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I did get the call from my preop people. I was logged onto Metro Health’s MyChart site and had discovered that I was scheduled to be there today at 2:15 PM for an inoculation of something to trace my lymph distribution below the surgery area. I was just writing a letter of complaint on the MyChart site when my nurse called. She was very helpful and I’m all set now to drive over this afternoon for my injection plus another blood draw for a final lab test for tomorrow. I decided not to complain at this point. Maybe later I’ll ask why I didn’t calls I was expecting. You don’t want to piss off the people who are part of cutting you up. At least that’s my opinion.

I’m planning to do prep for Wednesday’s rehearsal today. Eileen has volunteered to help. Stuff from this past weekend needs to be filed.  It’s not that much, but I need to have the opening and closing hymn redone in Large Print versions for my crew, then put them in their slots. Also the upcoming psalm for the following Sunday (Advent IV). Rev Jen and I are not meeting tomorrow. So all I have for Wednesday will be to give a piano lesson and do a rehearsal, both contingent on my ability to do so in post op recovery.

I believe if you go to this page you can listen to the program I was talking about yesterday, an interview with Robert Lustig
He discusses marketing which he defines as using truth to espouse your opinion versus propaganda which he defines as using misinformation to espouse your opinion. Then he combines this notion with the concept that when we hear something we agree with (true or not) we give ourselves a shot of pleasure inducing dopamine. I think he is saying we can then become addicted (physically) to this shot of dopamine so that we seek out stuff we agree with, consciously or not (confirmation bias).
Eileen and listened to some of a lecture of his on YouTube last night. Warning, it’s over an hour and half long and a bit technical in places, but excellent and informative so far.

Happy Birthday, Emily Dickinson

 

Again, I learned something from Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. Today is Emily Dickinson’s birthday. Keillor mentions that Dickinson’s entire family fell into public confessions of faith after a revival. Dickinson tried to do so as well but ended up failing. This colors some of her poetry a bit differently for me. I find in Dickinson a Shakespearean approach to language and thought that is very gratifying. Keillor reads a poem by her today, “This World is not Conclusion.”  I love the way this poem begins:

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond –
Invisible, as Music –
But positive, as Sound –
It beckons, and it baffles –
Incidentally  my Complete Poems changes the next line this way.
From “Philosophy, don’t know – ” to “Philosophy-don’t know”
I think the change from a comma to a dash (an Emily Dickinson dash!) changes the meaning. Maybe the subjects of the verb phrase “don’t know” are an implied “they” (Music, Sound) or even an implied “I.”

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