Made clearer to me

Nurses are awesome.

Doctor's need to work on their communication.

The healthcare in America is staggeringly lacking.

I would gladly pay higher taxes for free healthcare and education.


Like many, many other things, we should take notes from the Europeans on this one.

These thoughts swirl around in my head

I am a person of great optimism in this world, but I have to ask the question: Are desperate times always upon us? Can humanity produce great works in the face of despair? I contest that the best art comes from the greatest hardships. For example, if Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony (in honor of which they retired the number) whilst losing his hearing, which most composers would call a setback, is this not proof that the biggest obstacles in life are also the very peaks that greatness ascends?
Although I am not a particular fan if his work, Thomas Kinkaid is legally blind and yet has become the top-selling painter in human history. At least I assume he's legally blind. So personal misfortune cannot be said to foil creative endeavor. "The springs and freshets of Art will bubble up to wet the stoniest ground", if you must put it that way. But are all great works accomplished in the face of hardship?

The Arts with a capital 'A' have sustained the human spirit through some pretty stiff crises. The exquisite freedom of the expressionist painters in the face of an era bounded by authoritarianism, rectilinear thinking, and mechanized war, for example. Not artwork understood by the masses, but a refuge nonetheless for the willing initiate, or anybody on barbiturates. The masters of the Renaissance emerged in times of religious intolerance, political instability, and woolen tights. Before their time the cathedrals of Europe rose from the mire of a millennium of disease, chaos, cruelty, and despair. And people in all of those times thought the End was Nigh.

Art is an expression of that hopefulness. Art is also a way of grappling with the alternative, with destruction and dissolution itself. But if Art may be said to be an expression of both hope and despair, it can also be said to express all facets of the human condition. Even in our species' current extremity, what with the failing light of democracy in America, recession, xenophobia, ten-dollar valet parking, and the suffocation of the living Earth, Art will bloom.

The worse things get, the more vital Art becomes, although real estate is still more lucrative. If the Church has failed us, Art still remains. If men become beasts while governments turn (as they always will) to self-perpetuation at any cost, if commerce lubricates its gears with death (it's cheaper than machine oil and has the same viscosity at working temperatures), Art can overcome. Art can lead the way to hope from despair. We can therefore hope that the cathedrals of our time will yet rise.

My musings are over.

First and Foremost

Sitting at work, thinking of Alex in the hospital and wanting nothing more than to be next to him.

But alas, I must earn a paycheck.

Let's recap the weekend:

10:30 Sunday night Alex was experiencing severe pain in his abdomin and I took him to the ER.

12 midnight finally see the nurse to start with tests and possible diagnosis.

2:15 Monday morning Alex was taken to get a CATscan to see what the deal was all about.

2:45 Monday morning we found out that Alex had accute appendecitis, and was scheduled for surgery around 6:30 that morning.

4:00 Monday morning Alex was finally moved to a room. I slept in a chair next to his bed.

7:00 Monday morning we were awaken (from very light sleep) to be told that we would go down to surgery shortly.

8:00 Monday morning Alex was finally moved to surgery. I went to the waiting room.

9:30 Monday morning the doctor who operated on Alex found me and told me that it was more serious than we first thought. His appendix had actually ruptured and that was why he was in SO much pain. I was told that Alex was flushed out of all the poison and that he would be fine. But he would have to be in the hospital for the next few days.

9:45 to 12 noon I made phone calls to parents, friends and all who would be interested.

12 noon Alex finally woke up and was moved from recovery to his new room.

12 noon to 10:30pm I stayed with Alex and we watched movies and talked and tried to find ways to entertain ourselves.

Tuesday I was at work while my parents went to visit Alex.

6:00 to 10:00 Tuesday night I perfected the art of creating the most comfortable position in a hospital chair as we watched movies and chatted with the nurses. Still waiting to hear when Alex could go home, but getting no definitive answers.

Wednesday I am still at work and wandering how Alex is doing. His friend Kenna went to visit him so that he is not alone. I plan on leaving early so i can get to the hospital asap.

We still don't know when he can go home.


Poor guy.




I hope the next update will be happier!