Many folks wrestle through cancer decisions, weighing the hope for cure against the rigors of side effects. None are easy and although the right decision is sometimes available, most of the time there is no right or wrong. A good friend and patient in my medical practice received a diagnosis of lung cancer 10 months…
Category Archives: Spirituality
Are they human?
Anyone that has endured reading this blog over the past three years might know that I am continually asking and trying to answer the question: “What does it mean to be human?” The answer to that question informs hospice care, for the value we place on human beings determines how we treat one another. Bill…
Real Power
N.T. Wright likes to point out that the message of the New Testament is that real power is in weakness, and real change, real goodness, comes when we are weak enough to ask for help. Examples are Mother Teresa, the Apostle Peter, Muthama Ghandi, William Wilberforce, and, most notable and most powerfully, the Nazarene. The…
Angola State Prison Hospice
I visited Angola State Prison in Louisiana last month and I have to say it was one of the most interesting days I’ve ever experienced. I want to write about the hospice they run there, but before I do, let me tell you about this most interesting place. First of all, you have to know…
Guns, Germs, and Steel
If you are like me you make sure the next book you pick up is worth your time reading it. I’ve found that searching the best-seller Kindle lists is helpful for finding worthy texts. That is how I came across Jared Diamond’s, “Guns, Germs and Steel,” a 1997 Pulitzer Prize winner. Diamond is a University…
Something new, and old
It has been almost two months since I last posted. After writing about 100 blogs over a three-year span, I believe I had run out of things to say, and I didn’t want to keep re-writing the same stories and themes. Frankly, I’m surprised that anyone would want to read this blog . . ….
Rebuilding
One of our patients is a former con-man. Over 3 decades he cheated business partners and friends. In the Old West he would have been called a swindler. If you ask him, he was a successful con-man, and the most miserable person in the world. That was his situation until the Creator reached down into…
No regrets
A friend of mine from college posted on his Facebook page a few thoughts about regrets. Here they are: “I always hear people say, “I live my life with no regrets” or “I have no regrets in life.” Really?! Not one. I have tons. Practically every conversation I have, I later think, “why did I…
Love your neighbor
Jesus’ words to us came to mind when I first heard about one of our patients who had recently come on our hospice service. Her neighbors called us asking for help in taking care of her. We discovered that the neighbors had made a promise to the woman’s late husband, a wonderful guy, beloved by…
He can’t take His eyes off us
I was reading a book about a man who was the primary caretaker for his father. His dad had been a robust, hard-working man his whole life, and cancer had reduced his physical body to a bed-bound status, hardly able to feed himself. Each night, the exhausted son would feed his dad and then massage…
