Spending Christmas holidays at Disney World with Ben and Gabby

There cannot be a better place to spend the Christmas holidays at the Disney World with the grandchildren of 8 and 6 years of age.

And we still didn’t forget the true meaning of Christmas while having a good time and magic moment.  Jo asked Ben how he was going to describe his experience of the visit.  He said he was surprised to find out that Disney World is not just one place.  It has Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot; just like Bible has many Gospels such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And each theme park has many attractions just like each Gospel has many chapters.  There are God’s words in the Bible and the Disney World evokes wonder and awe just like God’s work.

The heavenly and out-of-this-world experience might have elicited the religious sentiment out of Ben.  On the “Star Tours—the Adventures Continue” 3-D (to just say it 3-D is an understatement) ride in Hollywood Studios, I was literary blown away when we’re heading for the galaxy in the setting of Star War universe.  I could see Gabby, sitting next to me on our space flight, was amazingly taken aback when we safely returned to the Earth.  Without buckling up we might have been thrown away into the dark outer space.

This attraction came to Hollywood Studios of Disney World and Disneyland in 2011 and Tokyo Disneyland in 2013.  The Europeans will have to wait until 2017 when it will go to Disneyland Paris.

 

A good beginning is half success: Brigham and Women’s Hospital was baptized by Dr. William Osler

Today (December 23) in 1954 the first successful human kidney transplant took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston  The surgeon, Dr. Joseph Murray and Dr. E. Donnall Thomas (of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington) shared the Nobel Prizes in Medicine in 1990.  Both died about one month apart in October and November of 2012.

During the five-day course of “Intensive Review of Neurology” at Boston in October, Dr. Martin Samuels (Chair of Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) showed us a photo of the opening of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1913.

The photo shows Dr. William Osler and many of the “founding fathers” of the hospital, the likes of Dr. Walter Cannon, Dr. David Linn Edsall, Dr. Charles Minot, Dr. Harvey Cushing, Dr. William Councilman, Dr. Henry Christian.  Apart from Dr. Cushing, they may not be the household names; nevertheless, they are all great physicians.  A good beginning is half success.

Dr. William Osler (one of the four “founding fathers” for Johns Hopkins Hospital) went to Oxford University in 1905.  He was back in Boston visiting Harvard campus in 1913.  Dr. Harvey Cushing wrote, “It happened that Sir William Osler was in this country on a visit and though we were in no condition to have a formal opening his presence forced the occasion, for we wished his baptism even though the hospital ... was still in the stage of scaffolding and plaster.  His influence, indeed, even without this early blessing of our venture, was strong among us.”

Of the many books I have of or about Dr. Osler, this one (Osler’s “A Way of Life”) is a gift from my daughters many years ago.  I must have talked about him all the time in those days.  I should have talked about him more often.  Not only is he the father of internal medicine, but also he is my “model”  of what an internist physician should be.

I mention a few of his sayings to make a point.

“While medicine is to be your vocation, or calling, see to it that you have also an avocation – some intellectual pastime which may serve to keep you in touch with the world of art, of science, or of letters.”

“The young doctor should look about early for an avocation, a pastime, that will take him away from patients, pills, and potions…”

“The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it.”

“Make me a willow cabin at your gate” and the trip we didn’t make

More than three years ago when a two box sets of DVD of Jean Arthur was released, WSJ had an article of “The legend of Jean Arthur” who was less well known than the stars she starred opposite, the likes of Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Cary Grant.

She died at age of 90 in 1991.  Her last film was “Shane” in 1953.  I found it interesting in a short letter-to-the-editor to WSJ (see photo below).  “Exquisite” is the only way to describe when one hears a good actor/actress reciting the famous lines of Shakespeare plays.

Many years ago I was blown away hearing a soliloquy of King Claudius (Disney’s Lion King was modeled after him) played by, I recall, Kenneth Branagh.  Such a beautiful and powerful thing! I was then determined to read the Bard.

Bernard Shaw said of Laurence Olivier’s playing Shakespeare’s, “He picked words off the playscript page, flung them passionately into the dark and secured them in the minds of theatergoers.”

After attending Richard III in theater, Lincoln wrote to the actor discussing how the opening line should be uttered, “Now is the winter of our discontent.”

When we decided to take a side trip to Paris for 2 ½ days on our trip to London, we scrapped from the list many sites we initially intended to visit: Blenheim Palace, Windsor Castle, Oxford University and Stratford Upon Avon.

I even planned to sit inside the “Willow Cabin” locates in the gate for the Visitors of Stratford Upon Avon reciting “Make me a willow cabin at your gate”.  Of course, I won’t be lucky enough to have a duet with Jean Arthur.

Willow Cabin” in the gate for the Visitors of Stratford Upon Avon

The Majestic Closer—Mariano Rivera

While reading a book yesterday I “swiped” the page and the page didn’t turn; too much digital reading! I finished reading the iBook of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover last week and more than half way through The Closer—autobiography of the Closer, who else? Mariano Rivera.

No discussion of Lady C’s Lover as I try not to talk about anything controversial, although I believe in DH Lawrence when he wrote Lady Ottoline Morrell , “About Lady C.—you must not think I advocate perpetual sex.  Far from it.  Nothing nauseates me more than promiscuous sex in and out of season.  But, I want, with Lady C. to make an adjustment in consciousness to the basic physical realties. . . .”

It is much less fun to watch Yankees without the majestic Mariano Rivera to close the game and Derek Jeter, the Captain.

If one watches baseball often enough, one cannot help but admire the strength and skill of the arm and hand of a pitcher.  I often time wonder how they can perform under the enormous pressure when the stake was so high.

Rivera apparently drew the strength from the Lord Almighty.  Standing alone on the mound he felt the overpowering presence of the Holy Spirit and that “He is the one who is all-powerful, not me”.  He writes as if he were a preacher.

Yankees picked the guitar riffs of “Enter Sandman” whenever Rivera was called to enter the field, he would recite his prayer,

“Lord, please keep me safe. Keep my teammates safe, and everybody safe. I pray that You will protect me and give me the strength I need. Amen!”

He said if he had his choice he would pick “Onward Christian Soldiers”.

FDR and Churchill singing  “Onward Christian Soldiers”.on the Prince of Wales 8/10/1941

When FDR and Churchill first met on August 10, 1941 they sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” during the service on boarding The Prince of Wales; it was reported that Churchill wept taking a handkerchief from his pocket.

Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter played together in Yankees minor league teams; Jeter was promoted to the Major League (MLB) a few months after Rivera did and they were sent back to the minor league the same day.  A star was not born overnight.  Rivera spent 5 years in the Minor League.

I am surprised to learn how he obtained his famous ‘cutter” (a cut fastball).  From a small boy in a small fishing village in Panama to the Yankees stardom.  What a career, what a life!

The Kindle book of The Closer is a gift from my daughters, who know the father best.