Zackary Sholem Berger's Blog, page 41
July 29, 2011
A poem by Yair Hurvitz
I live in this and live
beyond that.
Two in one.
This one absorbs dark
and is absorbed by darkness.
Everything that gives light
is called by that one Sun.
And in between, like the accused
on the deed of night's judgment,
tremor gives rise to a stammer:
liability from here till beyond.
–Yair Hurvitz (1941-1988)
from Hebrew: ZShB
July 25, 2011
The Reading O' The Lider
It was great to see everybody at the Van Gough Cafe last night for the book launch party. Here are a couple of photos. Video to come eventually. I also read some new, never-before-heard poetry from a project currently cooking up in the Big Mental Cholent Pot. More on that anon.
July 22, 2011
Responsibilities
Danielle Ofri's post for the Well blog (at the New York Times) is a fine restatement of the privilege of talking to and helping patients. But there's a flip side. A colleague recently told me about a medical student who tried unsuccessfully to convince a patient to undergo a CT scan for the diagnosis of possible pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs). The student was beside herself, anguished really, that the course of care she assumed was the best for the patient turned out not to be what the patient wanted.
The responsibility to provide the patient with what we think is the best recommendation, and then, to realize that their decision might be different: that is something I'm still getting used to every day.
July 15, 2011
Who should read the studies?
I chatted with a neurologist (a stroke specialist) at a gathering yesterday about the MRI techniques he is using in his research. He never depends on radiologist reads, he says, and interprets everything himself. This is the way things are going, he said. I don't know about the general trend – obviously, there are simple studies I read myself, but many things I leave to radiologists. But I'm not sure where that leaves us in terms of using imaging studies as tests to support or reject clinical hypotheses. When it comes time to modify prior probabilities on the basis of a test, would you rather have the prior probability of an involved clinician or a radiologist? I can think of arguments both ways.
A systematic review in JAMA looked at the effect of clinical opinion on the accuracy of radiologic interpretation and seemed to find improvement in accuracy, though I don't know how clinically significant this improvement is.
July 12, 2011
Fleeing Amy
I got out of the library (and will purchase, because the book has vaulted over the bar of my stinginess) the collected poems of Amy Clampitt. Yes, her wording is dexterous. She can parse seafoam like nobody's business. I could luxuriate in her French obscurities till the vaches come home. But then, oh Amy, I come to your letter from Jerusalem. Sure it is not in your voice but of an unnamed male narrator. (The poem is not footnoted, in contrast to many others.) Did the hand that held the pen that called a morning a "damascene-scaled bizarrerie of fernwork" really say "[t]he kibbutzim aren't quite, he admits,/what he'd expected. The Talmud/couldn't care less about anybody's/happiness." And later: "[...]Tanks are less/accommodating even than the Talmud/to a divided mind."
I can think of why she wrote such coarse things, but I am not sure I want to. I want to read – no, imbibe – her poetry but flee from the persona that wrote that poem. Ezra, T.S. – I hope you do not have company here.
July 11, 2011
July 10, 2011
Gerhard Stadler and Charging Thunder
For the past few days we have been staying in a state park of Nebraska. There is here an intense interest in the multiple massacres of indians that were locally perpetrated. At first I found this macabre, but while reading Ian Frazier's Great Plains I came to the realization that this bloody nostalgia is.also a foundation of legitimate history as well. Blame those who did the killing but accept the importance of the narrative.
Staying at these dark and bloody grounds I wondered whether a Native American would ever vacation here. (At another national park I saw a brochure for a tribal gathering that already took place in the area, which unexpectedly answered my question in the affirmative.)
One holocaust immediately makes one think of another. Frazier describes one encounter:
"Za vite people in America haff done such terrible sings to za Indians," [a hitchhiker from West Gernany] said. "Za vite people haff destroyed zo many uff za Indians' zacred blaces."
I looked at him. "What is your name?" I asked.
"Gerhard Stadler," he said.
I asked him to spell it. He did, and then shut up.
Where there is holocaust there is also the possibility of regeneration. I picked up a local paper and read the inspiring story of Anpo Charging Thunder, a Native American single mother to 6 (!) kids, who is now a family practice doctor, preparing to return to the area to help address health-care disparities among Native Americans and Spanish speakers. How often do you see a headline saying "Woman returns to area to care for patients"? I would love to interview her for this blog, so if anyone knows how to get in touch with her I would be most grateful.
July 7, 2011
Cosmic mirror (by Pinchas Glauber, from Yiddish; transl. ZShB)
On the night of the summer equinox I walked on the beach, my feet sunk in clay up to the ankles, and looked over to where the universe was reflected in the celestial waters.
This is what I saw:
Two and three make zero; others say seven.
The hottest summer sun keeps people in their beds; winter draws everyone to the beach.
Chelm was crowned the capital city, and the sun shines on idleness's path.
The clown mourns at his great-grandmother's funeral. Middle-aged slaves laugh themselves deeper and deeper into melancholy.
Synonym quarrels spitefully with opposite, and Rashi glosses an unwritten verse.
Tragedy falls in love with the lottery, and happiness gets lost in the halls of the nursing home.
Questions run in circles, driven by orphaned answers.
Doves carry computer chips in envelopes to someone on their deathbed just a skip and a jump away.
Babies comfort trembling mothers who cry for unborn fathers.
I saw all of this, standing on the edge with my face to the cosmic mirror.
June 30, 2011
A factual article about the blogger
A conscientious reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times wrote a very nice article about me. Unfortunately, it is only available in the paper version – but check out the PDF.
June 28, 2011
Blood and butterflies
When you finally got blood from the hard stick
You spotted the backflash of red
And said Thank God. The woman's legs and arms
Were everywhere, and you were in the middle
Holding her down with one hand while wielding
A butterfly in the other. You stuck her and she bled.
Read the rest of The Stick (and hear me read it) at qarrtsiluni.
