Sometimes I get so discouraged! The culture is shifting under my feet. Everything is morphing so quickly. I lose my balance. How does one stay steady through it all?

For one thing, all of my “stuff” has changed. I now love my tablet the way I used to love my sony walkman..or even my transistor radio. And I plan on loving my driverless car or hovercraft someday!

Conventions are changed too. I enjoy texting, but sometimes I send snail mail letters just for the novelty of it. I used to consider it rude if someone did not join in conversation at dinner because of an online conversation with someone not present, but ……WAIT! I STILL DO!

So how do I stay current and up to date without feeling like a dinosaur? One way is to recognize that while much is changing, there are some things that are always the same. Truth is always true. Beauty and goodness are always beautiful and good. These things consistently are present, to some degree, wherever God’s image bearers (us humans) exist. So I am on the lookout for these.

Millennials are different from me. They don’t remember an unconnected world. They travel more. But they are also much the same. They still feel lonely and long for deeper relationships. They still long to be understood. The ability to stay in touch with many more friends, even though they are far away, is a good thing. But deep connections still take time and effort and they miss out on some of that. They are too distracted! That is one of the ways I think they are off course. Though there are others, in some
sense, they are better than previous generations. For one thing, I don’t think they idolize status and material wealth as much. That is a good thing. But then, they also don’t value authority as much, and that is a bad thing. So….

As I think about it, change can be good and change can be bad. But there will always be change. I am going to try and stay focused on finding, in these shifting sands, what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable. I want to focus on these things…to dwell on them and point them out and promote them. And when I find something that is truly pleasing, I am going to try and share it with others……sometimes by snail mail!

This weekend is Parents weekend at my daughter’s university. Yesterday I sat in on a literature class and I left energized! How long has it been since I have been stretched to think outside my normal parameters? To think deeply about the meaning and cultural context of a poem or a short story? Do I think of rap songs as poetry? Did I know that the United States always has a poet laureate to record its history? Sitting just through one college class reminded me how much fun it is to learn! Hard work? Yes? Drudgery? Never! At least not when you listen to a teacher or professor who loves what they are teaching. It is infectious!

So how can we infect our younger people with this love of learning? I confess I don’t know what the answer is to our education system. But it can’t be more testing or better testing. It has to lie with empowering teachers. Teachers hold the key to awakening the love of learning in kids. Personally I remember when history came alive for me. I was in junior high and my teacher started talking about how a personal disagreement between 2 people eventually led to a large fight between nations. Wow! Who cared about exact dates of battles? I was confronted with the big picture in human terms! I will always be grateful to that teacher even though I cannot remember his name. History was a living subject to him and he loved it….so I learned to love it!

Certainly, one of the keys to developing young minds is more reading and less visual stimulation. We were created with the abilitThisy to have vivid imaginations but that skill needs to be exercised. Reading about a scene and then visualizing it is far different from just seeing it on a screen. That is why it is often disappointing to see a movie based on a book you have already read. The characters look different than you imagined!

I believe that teaching is a most sacred profession. How a teacher is teaching children is often more important than what is decided in boardrooms by highly paid executives. It is definitely more important than the latest NFL trade. It is not the place for indoctrination of the latest social agenda. The classroom is for instilling the ability to read, the love of learning, the need and freedom to ask questions, and the confidence to seek out what is true. We, the parents, need to defend for our kids. Let them have their French fries for lunch. It is the Junk Food of the classroom we need to get eliminate from our schools.

It is no secret that the health care field is changing rapidly. It is also no secret that a lot of physicians are not very happy in their chosen profession. Though I am not one of them, I strongly believe that not all of the changes are good. I have been a Family physician for almost 30 years and some of the changes are downright scary. Most days I feel very sorry for patients caught up in an unruly, extremely expensive, seemingly cold and uncaring, often illogical system. They do not feel good to begin with and the human touch they need and should easily find is being systematically removed. Data entry and endless computer screens and seemingly arbitrary obstacles to helping patients leads to a lot of physician frustration. Inspite of that…or maybe because of it…it is more and more important for all physicians to stand up and fight for what is best for their patients.

So what is best for patients? My belief is that we need more primary care physicians. Electronic data systems have changed everything. I know that I am working longer hours, no longer take a lunch break, and am still seeing fewer patients than I used to see. Along with electronic data systems come all sorts of rules and obstacles that do not help patient care. They are designed to help organize, store, itemize, and categorize information that is not helpful to the physician or patient, but must be desired for some reason by someone somewhere…….researchers? government? computer software engineers? I wish I knew!

When someone is ill, in the ideal circumstance, they are seen by a physician who is capable of diagnosing and competently treating 80 percent of their illnesses, whatever they may be. It is important that the initial physician be able also to recognize the warning signals of a more serious disorder and know where to direct the patient for further treatment. This describes a primary care physician. it does not describe a nurse practitioner or physician assistant. They do not have the same length or depth of training and experience and often don’t know what they don’t know. Currently mid-level physician extenders are to operate under a physician’s supervision, but that is not what is occurring in real time. Often, even in the emergency rooms of America, where the sickest patients theoretically go, a physician is only peripherally involved in the patient’s care. Signing off on a chart without examining a patient yourself is not adequate supervision.

So my wish is that there would be a public outcry for better primary care. Perhaps if the public demanded better primary care, medical schools would respond by helping to direct students to take the path. In the past it has been discouraged and frowned upon. Recently a medical student told me she was advised by the school sponsored financial adviser not to go into primary care because she would have a hard time paying off her student loans. It is true that is is less lucrative than pursuing a career as a specialist. Primary care is still, however, as a career, one of the most rewarding!

What do you do when you feel restless and bored?

Make a list of possible boredom busters, adding to it as you go….then when you cannot think of anything to do, maybe it will help.

Here is a sampling……..

1. Surprise someone by writing a Snail Mail letter
2. Try a new recipe
3. Clean to your favorite music turned up loud
4. A long bubble bath with candles
5. Practice makeup tips or new hair styles (if you are male, maybe just practice tying a bow tie)
6. Go for a walk outside or at a museum
7. Look under the seats of your car – always something surprising there
8. Google your name and see what shows up
9. Look through old pictures
10. Read a book by an author or in a genre you have never tried before
11. Plan a trip
12. Just DREAM!

Still bored? TRY BLOGGING!

I think the whole world read the book Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn before I even heard about it.  But I finally did hear about it and wanted to read it .  I bought the book, brought it  home and then found out that my husband already had a copy.  Why am I always the last to hear?  Anyway,  if you happen to be one of the few who haven’t read this book I would recommend it.  It is not the most well written book,  but it definitely puts a different light on recent events.  I did some fact checking and everything checked out.  I sure hope this great nation changes course.  We have been so blessed!!

I recently counted the number of screens in my home.  Including TVs and computers of various sizes, the current count for myself, my husband and our youngest, still at home son stands at 14.  No wonder I sometimes feel frazzled and overloaded.  And when I cannot get a screen to work I just feel stupid.  I am not a big TV person but I do love the news and “talking heads.”   I also, like the rest of the world, have discovered podcasts and Netflix.  But sometimes I just have to say enough is enough!  Unplug!  The sound of silence is still refreshing and healthy.  Ahhhh…….Gentle conversation with others, a quiet walk, a good book…with real pages!    I have noticed that when I unplug and slow down for a short time, my brain begins, after a bit,  to have creative thoughts and ideas again.  The pressure lessens and things look more beautiful.

I think we all are like a frozen computer screen at times…we just need to be turned off for awhile.  I saw this quote by Anne Lamott in a magazine recently.  She said”Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”  So I shall close….time to REBOOT!

It is so easy to be overwhelmed by all that is wrong in the world. We are bombarded almost constantly by problems that are beyond our ability to fix…or even understand. I am convinced that it is not healthy. As a physician, I see patients suffer from extreme anxiety incongruous with their own life difficulties.  How does one stay calm and functional in this very messy world?

One  answer is to monitor what we expose ourselves to.   What do we read?   To what do we listen?  Where do we get our news?  News sources today have become entertainment. The goal is to keep us entranced, listening for the next detail just like a good piece of fiction. But it is not fiction! And we do not have the resources to handle the problems of the whole world. We are finite. Our resources…mental, emotional, spiritual and financial resources….are all finite. When we are constantly inundated by problems and tragedies that happen far away and cause us to grieve and worry as if we could do something about them but cannot, we put ourselves in a position to get sick.

So how do we stay informed without becoming overanxious?  We cannot avoid hearing what is going on around us, nor do we really want to.  We can, however, be a little more selective.  Some TV personalities are more dramatic and inflammatory than others.  Also, we  can choose to listen just once.  We don’t have to listen to several shows in a row, all repeating the same thing. It is amazing how you can learn most of what you get during several hours of TV coverage in a good 5 minute synopsis.

We can  select shows that give unbiased news without a lot of commentary.  We are smart enough to make our own conclusions, and often don’t realize how we are influenced by the opinions of people that we do not really know.  Do you really know Bill O’Riley or Anderson Cooper?  And when something wholesome or encouraging is reported,  we can email or write to show that we appreciate that!  For them, it is about ratings and keeping us happy and coming back for more.

It cannot be right to put our head in the sand or to pretend we don’t care!  We were designed by our creator to be relational.  But how far does our own sphere of influence extend?   Who in that sphere is doing well and who could use our help?  For most of us, our sphere of influence is not the whole world, no matter how influential we would like to think we are. It is not heartless to not want to hear about every imaginative crime in cities not our own. Wherever we live, our own city has enough. And we might be able to help in our own city. So perhaps we should save our energy  for that.

Our own mental health is also improved by  looking for the good that surrounds us. In the midst of this fallen world there is a tremendous amount that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable. Let us look for what is excellent and worthy of praise and give it at least equal billing!  And if someone else does this on TV or radio or in print, then give kudos to them!

I recently made a visit to my hometown. Like lots of people, I have wonderful memories of growing up in the 60s and 70s in a prosperous community. Nancy Sinatra’s song “Downtown” rang true back then. Downtown was fun and where the action was before indoor malls. I remember a huge Montgomery Ward store with a large candy counter where my mom would buy a bag of mixed malted milk balls and chocolate stars. So I was excited to stroll those sidewalks again. But memory lane is not always such a beautiful street. The gorgeous stone church I attended is still there, but the steps I climbed so often to enter the sanctuary are gone and replaced by a wall. My elementary school lies vacant with weeds in front that are taller than the kids that used to attend. My high school also lies empty – someone painted the doors pink before it closed. The streets of small but well kept homes are in disrepair. The town has hit hard times. It depended on one industry and did not diversify. The town leaders did not foresee the future, so now my hometown lies in disarray.

Memory lane is a good place to visit and the past holds many lessons for today. But I can get stuck in the past. Rather than take the lessons it teaches and move forward, I tend to grow melancholy. Like the apostle Paul says, forgetting what lies behind one must press forward. I do not want to stumble now because I am not looking where I am going. I had a beautiful past and God promises a beautiful future eventually. But for now, I would not want to stumble on anything behind me! I shall concentrate on improving today and dream of what lies ahead.

I remember hearing once about a middle school student who wanted to be class president. She promised everyone free ice cream and won easily against a poorer student who had good ideas and a genuine interest in her classmates. Has the United States of America become like that middle school class?  Do we just want to elect those who promise us the most stuff and the easiest life……forgetting that We the People pay for it?

It would be nice to make a good living at a job that required little education, so maybe we should increase the minimum wage. Free college for everyone may be a solution….. even for kids who did not value the first 13 years of free education. Of course everyone should get free health care, including smokers, alcoholics and drug abusers. And if someone has a bad outcome, they should be able to sue the health care system, even if their care was rendered in good faith for a self-induced ailment. It all sounds nice, but it is not realistic.

We have such itchy ears. Do we really think our society can prosper this way? We are a society in denial. We listen to politicians when they blatantly tell untruths and then expect them to act in good faith the next time. We forget that if someone is dishonest in a small matter, they will be dishonest in a large one. They promise what they cannot give. We desperately need honest politicians to tell us what we would rather not hear.

We the people need to let our politicians know that character DOES matter. If they do not pay their own taxes, I don’t want them to vote on mine. If they cheat on their spouse they will cheat on me! What they do in their personal lives is no longer just their own business …… It determines whether I want them to be involved in mine!

I remember circling a parking lot with my husband at a health club. We were searching for a close parking spot. We wanted to go in and walk the track. We were trying to save a few steps on our way to walk! Definitely schizophrenic. Definitely American. And CRAZY!

So fast forward a few years and I bought a Fitbit. I LOVE my fitbit. It goes with me everywhere and it counts every step I take. The first thing it taught me is that I really did not take that many steps. But now I do more. When others are parking close to buildings, I purposefully park further away and enjoy the walk. I take the stairs. I make more trips to carry in the groceries (and don’t drop as much). Getting to 10,000 steps every day is not easy. It means avoiding escalators and elevators and moving sidewalks. It means taking a walk with a friend. Staying off the couch and enjoying outdoors.

Instead of taking shortcuts all day so I can get home in time to exercise, I incorporate it into my day. I encourage my patients to do the same. Why have we bought into the lie that the most efficient route is always best? It’s just not true! So why do I love my Fitbit? It has taught me that sometimes the best way is the long way around!