K.B. Pellegrino's Blog, page 13

Connections

Why don't we have regular SPECT or brain scans? Why is it that the brain is the only organ in the body generally treated by symptoms alone. For instance one of my best friends died of a glioma of the brain. His symptoms included lack of balance, forgetfulness, a bad knee, and maybe a bad hip and maybe a bad back and his stomach bothered him. He was in his eighties, but he worked every day. He functioned almost to the last. He had some headaches. His sinuses bothered him. X-rays, echo-cardiograms, knee surgery, back exercises, sinus scans, and lots of meds which did not agree with him. He got it all.

Through it all he maintained stately appearances. Not one doctor recommended a brain scan until he had his fifth fall only four months before his death. And then brain surgery and chemo and radiation and death.

Dr. Daniel Amen in his book, "Memory Rescue" reminds us the organs in our bodies are connected. You know just what connectedness means. One thing affects another. When my husband, daughter, son, grandchild, etc. suffers, I suffer. Imagine if we looked at the body as a whole mechanism and asked just why it is not running up to par and diagnose and make changes until we do better. Imagine if we change our perspective from pills to incorporating the body, mind, spirit, culture as potential cure basis for our illnesses. Believe me, if I have strep throat, I want penicillin. If I break my arm, I want my orthopedist. If there is genetic causes to problems, I want the best doctors in the house. Still, I want my friend to be alive and I think he could have been saved. Doctors need to have the time to think about the collection of complaints given by a patient. Patients need to journalize their problems in order to remember. We all need to relearn our relationship with our bodies.

Reeducation starts at home and then in the schools. I am uncertain that education is happening.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Poison Ivy

"Leaflets Three, Let it be" by Anita Ramos, is a book celebrating the good and not just the bad history of the three leaves. Right now I am unable to see the good poison ivy offers to small animals and insects. I am on prednisone for a major multi-floral bloom of its poisonous secretions. I am, so to speak, in red and itchy spotted bloom. I am unhappy, but wise enough to know that I have been foolish. The tale is sad: I was hospitalized as a teen, twice, with systemic inflammation. One of those times occurred the day after my prom date. Oh, the makeup I used that night to hide my face. It did not work. To my consternation the spots found their way through the attempted cover-up. Much later, I again suffered from the dreaded red bumps all over my legs and arms causing the dermatologist to ask, "What did you do to bring on such a, such a...reaction?" I explained I thought the salt water and sun would help. I was at Cape Cod at the time and did not wish to miss a minute on the beach. The Doctor then explained that salt water and sun were,.. well, fertilizers for the inflammation.

Did I learn my lessons. No! This author loves to garden. This author was not aware that the long vines I pulled from one side garden were not the same as the long vines pulled out of the water fall featured garden. This author needed a primer on the aggressive poison ivy plant; thus the book mentioned above.

We must read for enjoyment; we must read for education; and we must read for survival.

I am in poison ivy recovery. I am angry at all those beautiful ground covers which hid their poisonous cousins from me. I am particularly angry at my own slow learning.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Decisions in the Unknowing...

In all my positions as an engineer, CPA, Professor, and Licensed Construction Supervisor, I have often been forced into making timely decisions without the benefit of knowing all the facts. Why would anyone put themselves in that position? Because, a decision was needed and no decision is a decision. Clearly, I thought at those times that no decision was the worst choice.

I have just read 'COUNTDOWN 1945' by Chris Wallace. I deviated from my usual mystery literature and inspiring books on life because of my profound interest in Harry S. Truman. I liked Harry. He was an honest and practical man thrown into the limelight of political power when all around him thought he was not up to the job. He was! Mr. Truman was always Mr. Truman who served as President. He'd rose in politics midst some of the more questionable southern Boss political organizations. FDR made him his VP not out of respect but out of his potential source of Southern votes. Truman knew nothing about the Manhattan Project until FDR died.

Still, thrown into this position, after listening to generals, foreign statesmen, political advisors, scientists and thinking about the potential loss of American soldiers, our and European citizens as well as Japanese lives he made a difficult decision twice.

In an unknowable situation without a perfect path forward, Truman acted.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Crime Writing and Writers....

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Leo Tolstoy, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton, W. Somerset Maughan, P. G. Wodehouse, Aldous Huxley, John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, Agatha Christi, etc.

The previous are a list of skilled writers who wrote mysteries. Great authors who wrote short stories and or novels. There are hundreds more I could list. Why, then, oh why, do many say, "mystery is not worth the effort to read. What do I get out of it? Sci-Fi is really imaginative; Historical Romance gives information on history; other fiction is culturally based and informs us.

Mystery short stories or novels do what for us? I answer: they inform with cultural settings in particular time frames; and interesting characters from the normal every day person to society's throwaways; from the elite to the powerful to the criminal. While examining these characters we visit interesting and sometimes stunningly absurd plots. Best of all, we often receive a very important assurance from the author related to the possibility that good will prevail over evil. Murder mystery writing frequently presents the Ten Commandments and the punishment from a character's ignoring their importance. Murder mystery writing is one of the last moral constructs presented in fiction. Think of it as a presentation of centuries of philosophy centered in fiction. Perhaps it is attending church. We find peace in the solving. The murdered finally gets attention; the murderer is discovered, hopefully punished, and best of all the WHY is discovered.

I write the West Side (Massachusetts) MCU Captain Rudy Beauregard Mystery Novels. Beauregard believes it is his mission to find justice for the murdered, although he is not always able to deliver perfect justice. After all, he is only a police detective, not judge and jury. His detectives believe in him and his pursuits of justice. They are all relatively good and normal professionals dealing with sociopaths, psychopaths, the temporary fallen from society, the innocents, the suffering. Although I write police procedural novels, I write of culture and citizens, and life and morality.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Non-fictional Violence

I will say very little, but feel I must speak. I abhor violence. You may ask how I can represent myself as non-violent when I write about murder. I remind you that fiction is not reality. Examining motives for actions in fiction allows us to understand underlying problems facing citizens' lives, government and other social institutions.

Therein also lies at least one problem in society; the problem is the common belief that a thought occurring in one's mind means one should act. That belief is wrong. Actions have meaning. Our actions affect others. We must think about what and who will be impacted by out actions before we carry them out.

The horrors of police brutality are societal problems. In many situations the brutal actions affect some people in our society disproportionately. But, the truth is: police brutality in all instances is unacceptable. And police brutality must be stopped. Let me also say burning buildings, autos, stealing, and attacking others are also unacceptable actions and indefensible. As a former member of a police commission, I fought systemic problems in policing. Stop using identity as emphasis when the brutality is a horror in itself. Identity crimes are already punishable separately in the law both criminally and civilly. If we need new laws, then write them. If laws are unfairly prosecuted then act to change them by voting, by peaceful civil action; not by being a criminal.

One horror I see in the riots is the effect the riots have had on the every day living in affected cities and particularly the poor and disenfranchised who often live in cities. Their stores have been robbed. Their buildings have been destroyed. Further, insurance premiums in those areas where there has been destruction will rise. Rebuilding may be prevented by actual and social costs resulting from this turmoil.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Excitement! Finally!

From my postal service carrier to a neighbor I met on my walk today to another neighbor with his bouncing Pom/Alaskan Sheep dog who truly took to me, I experienced an opening in the heavy negativity recently engulfing me. My two mile walk around my neighborhood did excite me. Lawns have been freshly mowed and flowers planted. I passed two vans being loaded for travel. I wondered, where they were going and whether it would be safer there. I stopped myself from thinking a thought which interpreted their decision for their actions.
I believe we have taken steps as citizens to protect ourselves; albeit many were forced on us. I've recently been visiting a chapter here and there in a book on the Great Influenza. The difference, perhaps, between the two pandemics is not just one hundred years, but instant media. It was important to know what was developing, but the political conflict on analyzing the many issues related to care, understanding, medicine, culture, and nations confused and muddied the population's full understanding.

Today, I felt freer. Notice i did not say free. Today I worked in my office and garden and walked. An ordinary day. Tonight I participate in a ZOOM board meeting. I must use my phone. I'd ordered a Logitech webcam. It was back ordered. I tried through my tech support for another brand. It was similar to finding an oasis in the Sahara. I will get one in a week. Thus, I will use the telephone to join the meeting. My fifth book has been delayed and my second audio book is also delayed. My work on them has been finished for a while. I must wait for contrary to my wishes, I can not control publishing events. My nails are not yet done. My hair has grown longer. But...we are well.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Bob Dylan.... biographer and storyteller

I surprised myself today, but I can't take full credit. The emotion and appreciation I felt did not bloom from my imagination or interpretation, but I must report on it. Authors, including me, who write fiction especially in the mystery genre, often debate the merits of writing short stories vs novels. I love both and I do agree with shot story writers concerning their efforts, which require a synthesis of many thoughts expressed in fewer words. Their efforts are often described as taking a knife to a story and eliminating most background and developing a character in two sentence. The plot is tight, and for interest, must be sharp or insistent or appealing to a deep seated fear, anxiety, hope or... or. It is a difficult type of story to tell well.

Now imagine Bob Dylan's 2020 new 17 minute song - a story on John F. Kennedy's assignation and the history of the decade. Dylan's reedy voice made me cry. That voice made me relive what all the books and related press stories informed me. I thought I knew every bit of the story, but that voice made me relive the moment of knowledge that 'The king was dead. The young king was dead.' In his story he cryptically and quickly presented history and the the culture of the times. I was moved and I cried and I acknowledge the strength and beauty of this artistic expression. I also remind you and me there are no rules in writing words or in the formatting of those words. Many things work to reach an audience. Dylan reached me.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

FINDING ME....

'The Soul selects her own Society' by Poet Emily Dickinson informs me during this quarantine time. It has encouraged my connection to ME, MYSELF at this time and perhaps has allowed me to shut some doors... perhaps not presenting to the Majority as she states. I've been forced to ignore those 'Chariots' at my 'Gate'. I'm not certain it is a bad thing. In quarantine I have had to face my own company and have found it more enjoyable than expected. I have not been running hither and yon with unnecessary errands just to visit the outside world for stimulation. I've been unable to sit in a cafe with friends and while away the time with silly or maybe sophisticated chatter. I do miss some of the casualness of quick conversations and dear faces. I've had to instead discover deeper life within the confines of my home and fellow inhabitants. It is a good place to explore midst those I love.

A good friend recently explained he loved to sail for a few days on a regular basis. He would sail alone and he found his own company surprisingly pleasing. He thought he was a good companion to himself.

I thought of him and the poet today. I have rediscovered a part of ME I had not thought of in a long time. No experience in life is a waste. I have again become aware of an alternate view.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

An Ear to Dialects...

Author George V. Higgins wrote from his ear. What he heard, he wrote. I'm currently reading "Swan Boats at Four" which is probably not the best example of his sophisticated attention to the nuances of spoken language, but is one of his books I haven't read. Many readers became acquainted with his work when the film "Friends of Eddie Coyle" played. His strength in translating the spoken to the page sparkled in that book and its later movie production. My early years through college, experienced in Boston and the South Shore, made me attentive to the many local accents from Chelsea to Lowell to the North End to Dorchester to Southie and on and on. When I first read Higgins, his prose brought me home. He was gifted.

Many years later when I was faculty advisor to the Westfield State College Senior Class, the students turned down the Administration's suggestion for a graduation speaker who would also receive an honorary doctorate. I was appointed to negotiate with the student officers and find a literary choice. I met with them and they were adamant the choice should be someone from Massachusetts; there had not been a 'local' choice for several years and the students wished to choose for a state school, a state speaker. I put forward several choices, but they stated, 'not the King's English but ours is needed'.

We (the Acting College President, the Students, and I) met my choice, George V. Higgins, at Jimmy's Harbor Side in Boston for dinner. And what a night! Higgins was in rare form and entertained us with outrageous but true stories; and he was a storyteller. The President had reservations the choice, and wondered if he were reserved enough for a speaker. Would he hold down on the splashy rhetoric for the day and said it was my job to ensure he did.

I spoke with Mr. Higgins and said how we welcomed him. I said nothing else and held my breath. He spoke. He was brilliant, and further he returned the honorarium back to the school with hearty wishes for all. What a trip! What an experience... was Author George V. Higgins and what a read.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Visionary...

Laurie Garrett, author of "Betrayal of Trust" published in 2000 saw the future. She surely speaks to globalization and the collapse of Global Public Health. Her book's epilogue is a must read. I quote, "... Were a biological attack to occur or a naturally arising epidemic, the public would only have one viable direction to which to place its trust: with its local, national, and global public health infrastructure. If such an interlaced system did not exist at a time of grave need it would constitute an egregious betrayal of trust." She argues reasonably about the concepts of globalization, inclusion of communities in solutions, building bridges, concern for diseases in every part of the world, and the understanding that the threats of globalization which bring new diseases to all may also allow us to realize the solutions must be global and treatment given to all.

The book is a well researched text and should be read. We must leave the old thinking behind such as: How could COVID-19 get here; who is to blame; when is the next pandemic; how can I protect myself and my loved ones; give me the drug protection immediately, etc.

We are faced with a world problem. We must by necessity quarantine and protect borders in the midst of disease pandemic, but to move into the future we must understand where we have been and the past narrow solutions which prevented our going forth with a broad and visionary health structure for ours and all other countries.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author