why i love dresses and pants

I just love how a girl can wear dresses, pants or both together these days. And I'm definitely a both kind of girl.
I just love how you can be prissy and frilly and girly to from shoulders to knees, with jeans below. So you can look like a girl, and feel like a girl, but also feel comfortable and casual at the same time.
Flip flops or high heels. Either way, it works.
I'm just excited this morning because I'm wearing a favorite dress layered over jeans and it makes me feel so good.
As a kid, my mother never let me buy what I really wanted to wear. I've been a hippie since the beginning of time, but she liked to dress me in color coordinated outfits that made me feel all squirmy.
Now I get the heebie jeebies if I have something on that's too matchy matchy. My family has always laughed at my way of dressing, particularly my love of long dresses and skirts. Which has caused me self consciousness on occassion. Alright, not on occassion, but just about every time I get dressed, I worry that I'm a Mademoiselle don't. And for those of you who don't know what that is: some of the fashion mags have a column where they take pics on the street of women who are dressed appropriately, and others who aren't. Their faces are blocked out, but oh the horror!
At any rate, I'm always very happy to create a new outfit that works without being too outfitty.
I'm a girl at heart. And always love a dress. Over jeans. With flip flops. Better yet, boots.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of your own unique personal style.

Heartiest Congratulations

Dear all IMU graduates/undergrads,Please join me in wishing heartiest congratulations to our senior, Dr.Lee BS who has just passed her PACES and became a new physician! Same to her batchmate, Dr.Ng KS who passed it earlier on this year. Both of them are currently practising in Hosp Taiping.Two young specialists! What an achievement! (Can you believe that she's only 28 this year..)I'm truly proud

walking weather

Last week I tried walking to work, and have decided to try to do it twice a week weather permitting. It's about an hour door to door, strolling comfortably. It's a perfect way to start and end the work day, and on Tuesdays and Friday's I'm not weighed down by karate gear.
Yesterday, I remembered while walking, that some time ago I had thought I would write about my walks in city and country. I remembered that I'd forgotten to keep it up.
So today, while surfing the online Times, I was delighted to come across a blog that does it far better than I ever could. Reading Necessary Steps, I wondered why some blogs pull me in despite their length, and others don't hold me past the 2nd sentence. Sometimes I suspect it's content. Others, some kind of magic in the language and the rhythm of the words.
At any rate, check out the comments as well. They're almost as good reading as the post.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of walking.

Entropic Selves and the Persistence of Metaphor

Hegel said the ultimate tragedy is not the struggle of an easily recognized good against a clearly loathsome evil. Tragedy, he said, is the battle between two forces, both of which are good, a battle in which only one can win. Nature has woven that struggle into the superorganism.

~Howard Bloom, The Lucifer Principle

Emily Martin illustrates the post-modern tendency to support an image of the human body as a complex, open system where prevailing theories of immunology play into this thermodynamic metaphor. The body becomes just another system interwoven within other, larger systems, each subtly fluctuating and effecting the other. This matrix of inter-related bio-systems appears to obscure the notion of the "enemy" thus subverting the militant metaphor prevalently used to describe the human immune system during the Cold War years. It also appears to subvert the anthropocentric model used to describe health, illness, and immunity where humans either defeat the surge of pathogenic organisms embarking on their body, or they succumb to the "enemy." The open system perspective, however, does not necessarily ensure that the human being lies at the pinnacle of importance when it comes to the value of a subsystem within the global system. In fact, human bodies, as a subsystem are shown to hold no special importance in context to other parts of the system (125). The shift in the metaphor of the human body and the immune system, health and illness, appears to by typical of the "eroding of the identifiable self" in post-modern times (Gergen 7). Diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer appear to evade scientific attempts at classification, understanding of etiology, as well as signify an internal collapse of the immune system or suggest that the body has turned against itself. The unsettling disease metaphors associated with HIV/AIDS and cancer depict the post-modern condition and the associated symbolic waning of a static, identifiable human condition, or an a priori sense of self. The many anomalies associated with the virus such as, individuals becoming infected and then testing negative for virus and remaining healthy with no subsequent test indicating seropositivity, or the fact that some individuals may be exposed to the virus but not become infected, appear to challenge established positivist notions of health and illness (Martin 128-129).

In the article Signifying the Pandemics: Metaphors of AIDS, Cancer, and Heart Disease, Meira Weiss discusses the cultural construction of these afflictions in relation to Twentieth Century modernist and post-modernist perspectives. Weiss describes, that unlike AIDS and cancer the metaphors associated with heart disease focus on the localized nature of the affliction and its relatively accessible understandings of its causes and courses. Heart disease has a very mechanistic connotation and its victims do not usually harbor the same stigma associated with AIDS and cancer. When asked to describe a patient with heart disease, respondents, comprised of nurses, physicians and students were noted to have illustrated a relatively healthy looking individual that could be viewed as making wrong life choices, but is usually presupposed to be a victim of an unavoidable inherited disease (469). In stark contrast, Weiss notes the response she received in asking individuals to illustrate their metaphors regarding AIDS.

AIDS means loss of self. I see no face, but a skull, with a screaming mouth, like Munch's picture. It reminds me of the pictures of holocaust victims. This is even more apparent in AIDS then it is in cancer. I can see the face, but it is hidden by many arrows all pointing at it (Weiss 466).

In this vivid metaphor one can observe the duality of AIDS as a disease that not only is the breakdown of the 'mechanics' of the immune system, but also a loss of control, a loss or degradation of self that reiterates the post-modern condition. Weiss depicts how individuals may often use metaphor to lessen the impact of the loss associated with AIDS and cancer. For instance, Weiss notes that Ronald Reagan was once asked about his cancer. Reagan replied, "I didn't have cancer. I had something inside of me that had cancer in it and it was removed" (Weiss 461). In this example, Weiss shows how the body insists on localizing a disease process to a particular region that may be either physically or symbolically excised.

Martin's elaboration on HIV/AIDS and associated metaphors truly depict a "war without borders" where the xenophobic-militant metaphor regarding the immune system is no longer applicable. In regards to HIV/AIDS, the lines between "self" and "non-self" become ever so difficult to determine. The notion of the body's triumph over its invading enemies becomes deluded, as one no longer views viruses as inherently 'bad' but rather just adapted to survive under the same processes and pressures of natural selection that governs all subsystems of the global system. In the field of Biotechnology, one observes the manipulation of viruses and their innate qualities and capabilities as being an asset to human disease prevention, treatment, and even aiding in the development of new cures. Disease agents, disarmed of their associated enemy- militia connotation, as well as their pathogenic quality, are often used in potential innovative treatments of diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS. For example, HIV carries the enzyme for reverse transcription and is able to insert this enzyme into the genome of a healthy eukaryotic cell (host cell). Scientists and geneticists have realized that this perceived harmful characteristic may be used to insert "good"genes or genes that would benefit or combat the ill effects of a particular affliction.

Trends in globalization have facilitated the spread of a flexibility model in regards to the immune system, as well as the facilitated the spread of diseases like AIDS. Martin depicts the co-evolution of disease, disease metaphor, and social metaphor as being one not of coincidence but rather as symbolizing a shift in the prevailing world-view, one that transcends borders and is dictated by the culture of capitalism and the expansion of the world market.

Million Dollar Question

Ya I have a million dollar MCQ here. Choose the best answer:It's 4am. Sleeping time for every normal human. Somehow (I really dunno how), you realized your lips are quite dry. Maybe cracked a little bit. You will:A. Continue to sleep.B. Drink more water.C. Get up from sleep, drive to hospital emergency department and see doctor.D. Call ambulance to come get you to go hospital to see doctor.If you

adventures in veganland

Today at lunch I was reading a Buddhist parable in Soul Food, a compilation by Jack Kornfield and Christina Feldman. It was about a King who loved to hunt. In his passion, he decimated the fields of his subjects, who created a fenced-in hunting ground to protect their farms and forests. In the hunting ground were trapped two herds of deer, each with a King.
Long story short, the Noble Banyan Deer King takes the place of a pregnant deer who has drawn the lot to be the human King's prize one day. Previously the human King has declared the Kings of deers to be spared the bow and arrow. He does not want to fell the Banyon King, but the Banyon King insists that he can not be spared if the rest of the deer remain in fear of their lives. Likewise the birds, and the fish and all animals everywhere. Because of his high regard for the Banyon King, the human King declares all animals, fish, birds and beings safe from the violence of man.
It's a beautiful parable.
And inspired me to forgo the steak and especially the squid at the lovely little Portuguese restaurant I'd stopped in for lunch. So I ordered a simple salad - and traditional kale and potato soup, which turned out to have sausage in it. Then I realized I'd been slathering my bread with butter too.
I'm considering myself a conscious carnivore at the moment. Because I'm attempting to head in the direction of becoming vegan, I am becoming more aware of my unconscious habits and patterns in eating. I don't feel bad about my butter and sausage. I just realize I may have to ask more questions when I order. Ask that butter not be brought to the table, opt for olive oil instead.
I wonder where I'll be with this a year from now? It will be interesting to see. In the meantime, I'll be noting my progress, my questions, my conflicts and challenges, in the interest of living the artfully examined life.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of delicious food, consciously prepared, and consciously eaten.

The Passer-by Phenomenon

Guess passer-by is quite a famous identity in blogging world now. He/she "passes-by" blogs, and leaves a "bomb" comment, that would drive the site owner mad (or near-mad) and started to flame back frantically, so as the site's fellow readers.Interesting phenomenon isn't it.Here are 3 examples that I came across, where site owner, coincidentally, reacted to the "passer-by" in a similar way, by

From the Healing Hearts

I guess no one has any question about Tony Leung is one of the finest actors from HK. Out of so many of his movies, one of my very favourites would be "Healing Hearts", which he played his role as a neurosurgeon. I especially like the beginning part of the movie:"As a doctor,the most regretful thing could be when the one you care for most,has developed illness that,there's nothing you can do

inspiration: dogs

Today, I bring you dog inspiration. I'm on a pet food assignment this week with a big brainstorming meeting tomorrow, so of course I was Googling dog stuff today. And ran across a little something beautiful in the Times. (Be sure to scroll down and watch the Fly by Night video too.)
That got me to thinking about George Rodrigue and his blue dogs.
And then, when I went to visit my new favorite blog The Pioneer Woman, her post today is about a beloved dog gone missing.
It's August, usually the dog days of summer.
And ever since our cat dog Simon had to be put down last May, I've been not so secretly pining for a puppy.
Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. What do you think?
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of the animals that you love.

more - or less - vegan

After a weekend of decidedly unvegan-ism - eggs for breakfast, cheese for lunch, grilled tuna for dinner - I'm back to basics with a vegan breakfast and lunch.
Dinner on Monday nights is sushi after karate. But I'm beginning to rethink tuna too.
Japan and the US are fishing the tuna to extinction. Do I really want to be a part of that? No. Definitely not.
And though salmon are in trouble too, I'm not completely ready to give up my fish love.
I have some questions about being vegan from a philosophical point of view. In truth, all the food that we eat, is in some ways created with the help of a vast array of insects and micro-organisms. Which is why I don't really understand the no honey, no milk/butter thing. Are figs all right, even though their creation is dependent on a particular type of wasp?
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of unanswerable questions and pondering the universe.

Affliction, Metaphor, and the Body-Politic

In Flexible Bodies, Emily Martin illustrates the contextual use of metaphor to elucidate models of immunology, the body, illness, and the larger body-politic. She demonstrates the flexibility of these metaphors as agents used to uphold the idyllic social construct of the individual as a system within a larger system. In Part Two, Martin provides a concise historical overview of the malleable metaphors of the human immune system. The immune system is depicted as a castle equipped with fortifications that block the advancing enemy or pathogen. Martin proceeds to show how the metaphor of the immune system evolves along with the concept of the body-politic. She elaborates on the militant/xenophobic narrative that has outer as well as an internal arsenal of specialized white blood cells that identify and "attack" and invading organism. A preoccupation with hygiene and "barrier maintenance" moves aside for an immunity metaphor that portrays the internal mechanisms of the human machine.
Painting by Jacques Fabian Gautier D'Agoty (1717-1785)

The human body is scrutinized during the early-mid twentieth century and checked for efficiency. During the Fordist years, Martin illustrates how the private body entered the public realm. Maintenance and surveillance of the social body became imperative to the "moving assembly line organized for mass production" (30). It appears that during the mid-twentieth century the concept of ego, as illustrated by Sigmund Freud, and put to public relations use by Edward Bernays, provided the necessary component for maintenance of the social body without employing elaborate measures by the state. This mechanism may be referred to as ego nourishment or even narcissism. Checks, balances, and rewards for maintaining the body as a well-functioning unit, include the esteem and envy of others as well as certain societal entitlements. One is encouraged to seek the esteem of others to nourish the ego, which in turn encourages bodily optimization ultimately leading to the attunement of the social and political body. I am reminded of the statement made by R. D. Laing in the Politics of Experience, "What one is supposed to want, to live for, is 'gaining pleasure from the esteem of others.' If not, one is a psychopath" (40).

Martin acknowledges a shift in immunity metaphors that suggest a transition in the social order. She refers to "flexible specialization" as a term used by political economists to describe the change in production during the 1970s. She states, "multinational capital operates in a globally integrated environment: ideally, capital flows unimpeded across all borders, all points are connected by instantaneous communication and products are made as needed for the momentary and continuously changing market" (41). In other words, trends towards globalization requires optimized flexibility. Martin discusses the shift in the metaphor of immunity as slightly departing from the traditional militant/xenophobic model to one that favors homeostatic design and specialized flexibility. Scientific discovery appears to recapitulate the flexibility metaphor used in context to the social body. Or, likewise, the socio-political metaphor may recapitulate scientific discovery. Martin illustrates the scientific discovery of the flexible antibody as portrayed as a "galvanizing moment in the development of immunology" (92). She questions whether the biological model arose as a cause or as a result of the transition in the social body dynamic - from one characterized by specialization to one of a more flexible design (93). Martin illustrates how scientific objectivity is never divorced from socio-political ideology, though it makes painstaking claims at a complete excision. The sterile lab room is still muddied by culture and politics in spite of the elaborate efforts of the scientist.

In The Body's Insistence on Meaning: Metaphor as Presentation and Representation in Illness Experience, author Laurence J. Kirmayer illustrates the importance of language in giving meaning to bodily experience:

The body and its passions are viewed as disruptions to the flow of logical thought, as momentary aberrations or troublesome forms of deviance to be rationalized, contained, and controlled. Yet, in everyday life, bodily experience preempts our rational constructions. Through the pain and suffering that foreshadow its own mortality, the body drives us to seek meaning, to take our words as seriously as our deeds (325).

Kirmayer's statement illustrates that in the liminality of illness, embodied metaphor takes precedence over and in spite of rational biomedical assertions. Martin shows how metaphor shapes the perceptions of the body as inextricably linked to the larger body-politic. Political metaphors, like biological metaphors, forge the human imagination and give the impression of limitless freedom in a terrain that is ideologically pre-determined by language.

Red Bull Drink Increases Risk of Heart Attack?

"Just one can of the popular stimulant energy drink Red Bull can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in young people, Australian medical researchers said on Friday.The caffeine-loaded beverage, popular with university students and adrenaline sport fans to give them "wings", caused the blood to become sticky, a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems such as stroke.'One hour after they

vegan for a day

I'm so inspired by the small steps of Kaizen, that I'm applying it to all sorts of ideas that I have. I've been toying with the idea of going vegan for some time. It pops in and out of my heart/mind for both spiritual and physical reasons. But it seems like such a big commitment. No dairy, eggs, even honey. Three things I love.
I'm so much less concerned with no meat, no chicken, no fish. I rarely eat meat. And I'd really like to wean myself off chicken and fish. So.
I'm breaking it down into baby steps. Starting with one day a week, and one meal a day. This will be very easy for me. No big deal at all. Yesterday was my first day. And most mornings my breakfast is vegan anyway. On the days it's not, I'll make it a vegan lunch or dinner.
So I got all the way through yesterday then realized this morning that just before bed I ate 3 pieces of chocolate, which must have had milk in it.
Not to mention the sweat, labor and servitude of children. But that's another issue I'm grappling with: the politics of chocolate.
Food is so important to me in so many ways. It can be either so nurturing or so destructive to us.
I try to remember before I eat to say this blessing:
May this food nurture and sustain me in everything I do.
May all beings everywhere be safe happy and free, with enough food to eat and a safe place to sleep.
And thank you to all the beings that brought this food from the earth to my mouth.
Sometimes I say it mid meal, while chewing, but it helps me connect to gratitude and nourishment, and remind me that I'm not eating from a trough.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of nourishing food.

What a GREAT Day!

As I said, good or bad things, they just happen. Anytime, no signs, and most of the time when you least expected it.I had another "special visit" again today. My hospital director suddenly came down to emergency department, wanted to see me and my department head. Apparently it's regarding the incident which the "VIP" was managed here few days back.She looked serious. She asked to trace back the

the science of creativity

There's a great article about creativity in the May issue of Scientific American.
I'm feeling a bit creatively challenged at work this week and found it a great relief to read.
I've also picked up the book, Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall at eurekaranch.com.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of new ideas and great reading.

Doctor & Patient (3) - Frustrating Chapter

Case 19 year-old boy complained of mild giddiness.On examination, he's perfectly fine.Doc: "He doesn't really need medication.."Mother: "Huh? No medication? Nothing at all?"Doc: "Hmm..alright..." (planned to give some vitamins)Mother: "But is it ok for him to take medication? He's still small right..."Doc: "That's what i said, no need medication."Mother: "But what if he feel giddy again? At least

bijoux

This week I've been making jewelry. It's one of my first loves. And it's been a while. Too long really.
My friend Helmi showed me how to make this wrapped wire rings, and they're really easy, really fun, and really satisfying.
I love repetitive action and the wrapping is really meditative for me. So is the process of stringing the beads. I don't usually make a plan for color or pattern, and simply allow it to develop in the random act of picking up the beads.
Wearing them is great fun and it's always nice to get compliments on something we've made.
So I have to highly recommend digging out your beads (don't we all have some lurking in the back of a closet somewhere?) or treating yourself to a bead-buying excursion. It's not so serious. It's a lot of fun. And you can do it while you're watching tv - although I prefer it as an alternative to zoning out in front of the tube.
May your day be filled with Magic Medicine.

late summer reverie

Late summer is here, and I feel myself clinging to it emotionally. I just love these hot days and cooler nights, when the cicada hum rises and falls all day and night. There's a stillness in it that speaks to my heart.
It's been a busy summer and though I've spent plenty of time in the hammock, I don't feel like I've had that lazy summer day experience at all. Which got me to thinking about my favorite moments of the summer despite the whirlwind of activity. Here's the beginnings of my list. I invite you to make one too.
1. Discovering the hum of crickets in New York City while walking down the street with my niece and her friend after an evening in Times Square.
2. Taking a skinny dip in the lake at Omega after a quiet peaceful sauna.
3. Getting a massage in back of the Art Hut.
4. Making jewelry with Helmi at the house.
5. Taking a life drawing class and a silk screen class.
6. Savoring a Jacques Torres ice cream sandwich.
Ooohh. I'm just noticing how sense-oriented all of these things are. What are your top summer moments?
May your days be filled with gratitude for the Magic Medicine of every day moments.

080808

Hihi..I'm "magically" back for a post! As I said, I'll blog one post or two if hands are unbearably itchy. Hehe. 080808 is such a special day isn't it? So this special day "exacerbates" my itchy hands, and hence I really feel like writing something today;) Just watched the Olympic opening ceremony..i'm just soooo glad that i didn't miss it. If not that I've purposely changed my shift from evening

time for everything

I prescribe to a way of life I call wild-crafting - living in rhythm with the seasons and what is readily available - so I'm normally not drawn to step by step plans, and all the time management techniques that promise to make life thrum. My rationale is that we're human beings not machines. And while I seek balance, ease and productivity, I'm typically turned off by systems. They seem counter intuitive to me, anti-creative, and way too constricting.
But Jonathan Fields has a great way of translating these techniques into very human, accessible ideas that actually resonate with me, and don't stir up my natural resistance. Take a look at his Monday post and see if there's something in it that works for you.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of the things you most love.

Bodily Transgressions and Post-Modern Magic

The mythical qualities of which we have been speaking are powers or produce power. What appeals most to the imagination is the ease with which the magician achieves his ends. He has the gift of conjuring up more things than any ordinary mortals can dream of. His words, his gestures, his glances, even his thoughts are forces in themselves. His own person emanates influences before which nature and men, spirits and gods must give way.

Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic

In Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death, Margaret Lock discusses the implications behind the establishment of death as an event (specific technical indicator(s) reporting the likelihood of the irreversible cessation of cerebral function) rather than a process, and the procurement of human organs. Lock reveals the socio-political and economic contexts in which the mere acceptance of organ transplants and "brain-death" in North American culture signifies embodied beliefs about nature, culture, the mind/body dichotomy, and even the concept of the soul or "personhood." Lock illustrates in detail the commodification process of the human body and its components, the point when the social duty of the attending physician lies not with his/her patients, but with the market value of that patient's organs and the protracted well-being of the future recipient. Lock points out incongruities that exist when one acknowledges the perfusing body of an individual legally defined as dead. She states, "In stark contrast to the half-hidden, pale, lifeless face of the brain-dead person, the interior of the body is colorful and alive" (20). Such incongruities fuel the debate on death as occurring upon the death of the brain when one can no longer observe death but rather is dependent on machines to state its occurrence. Lock indicates that defining death as an event rather than a process is central to the legality of organ procurement. If death is simply the point when the brain ceases to function, and this cessation is verifiable, then removal of vital organs such as the heart and liver would not be murder, under law.

As we have seen, conceptions of health and illness have been systematically re-worked and negotiated in order to support or resist cultural, social, political, and economic regimes. Lock depicts the contextual reframing of death in order to serve what may be deemed pragmatic and altruistic extensions of science. Defining death as the point when the brain ceases to function, is seemingly characteristic of the mind/body dichotomy that is prevalent in western cultures. To insist that brain-death signifies death of the person and attempting to export this notion into universal biomedical practice is seemingly intrusive and in violation of various familial and cultural milieus. Lock illustrates how the mind/body split associated with western culture recapitulates western philosophy (73). A look into the writings of Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, provides insights as to the genealogy of the mind/body split in biomedicine and western culture as a whole. The following is a statement regarding Descartes theory on the pineal gland as being the seat of the sensus communis or soul. The statement is a succinct reiteration of Descartes's theory involving the pineal gland and the placement of the soul or "personhood" in the brain, by Jean Cousins, a defender of Descartes.

...one may observe a gland, called the pineal gland, which is situated like a centre in the middle of the ventricles, and which is the meeting point of threads coming from the external senses as if from the circumference; and because it is unique, supported by the choroid plexus and permanently inflated by the spirits which have been elaborated, it is only in this gland that the double appearances received by both the eyes and the ears can and must be united: "for there is one sense faculty, and one paramount sense organ." Aristotle was therefore mistaken when he located the common sense in the heart, the Arabs were mistaken when they located it in the anterior part of the brain, and the Metoposcopists were mistaken when they located it in the forehead and its wrinkles (Lockhorst 8).

In the article "The Ambiguity about Death in Japan: an Ethical Implication for organ procurement," author John Robert McConnell III asserts that Japanese religious and philosophical culture is influenced by Shinto, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. He explains the effects that these belief systems have on the social perception of death and organ procurement. For instance, McConnell III illustrates the teachings of Confucianism and Taoism and how such belief structures infer that the "human body is a microcosm of the universe" (323). The integrity of the body after death is then perceived as essential to providing a "resting place for the soul." The notion of "brain death" is easily accepted within a culture that widely distinguishes from the mind and body, where the soul rests in the mind and mans the controls that maneuver the body. Within this mechanistic paradigm, with Judeo-Christian influences, organ procurement is justified as moral and pragmatic.

The rituals associated with death, Lock describes, can be associated with Turnerian liminality in that they represent the transition from one social order to another. The "performance," i.e. funeral procession, marks the transition between one's engagement within the social realm and one's cessation of all engagement. Death, thus, is a social and cultural process as much as it is a biological process or event. Lock takes notice of the protracted liminality of death and states, "the liminal period may commence before biological death sets in. It spans the ambiguous time of biological, spiritual, personal, and social transformations associated with dying and death" (198). The condition of "brain death" creates visual ambiguities that appear to greatly interfere with the necessary rite of passage that allows for the acceptance of one's passing and, further more, the re-establishment of social order, if only minutely. Lock demonstrates the peculiar nature in which North American and European cultures have been able to widely accept brain-death as symbolizing total death. She indicates that is is a typical assumption of the West to associate culture with the "other" and negate the cultural and religious traditions of the West. Lock does not then simply associate the limited acceptance and ambivalence regarding organ procurement and "brain-death" as being a peculiarity among the Japanese or a rejection of modernity by the "other." She asserts that organ procurement measures may provide relief to North American and European sensitivities in that the continuation of life via technology seems to "transcend the 'scandal' of biological death" (206). Lock reiterates Foucault's suggestion that death is perceived as a failure on the part of medical technology (203). This notion appears to portray the tragedy of death as transcending the personal and familial and framing death as a socio-political tragedy as well (203). I am reminded of the example stated in earlier in the book where Lock notes the reluctance of the medical community to disclose limitations in medical technology.

Hoffenberg is still shocked about a photograph showing Philip Blaiberg, the recipient of Haupt's heart, "swimming" at a Cape Town beach several months after surgery. He recalls that Blaiberg was never able to walk independently after surgery. For the photograph he had to be taken down to the water's edge in a wheelchair, carried into the ocean, photographed, and then hauled out again (85).

The quote by Marcel Mauss at the top of the page illustrates the relationship between Mauss's definition of magic and the culture of biomedicine. It appears as though the physician is not unlike a post-modern magician where notions of nature and man, spirits and gods are forced to give way to scientific rationalism and biomedical hegemony.

Dialysis Painting by Elisabeth Frauendorfer, PhD

http://www.magnussa.com/dialysis.JPG

back from hiatus

I disappeared without a word. Ever want to do that? Ever need to?
I sometimes daydream about leaving everything behind and joining the Peace Corps. Selling everything I own and living in a tiny cabin in the woods.
What do you fantasize about when you're overwhelmed, or just in need of a real break from your life?
While you're thinking about that, take a look at this post from blogger, Steve Olsen... and thanks to Ben for posting it on Facebook.

Taking a Break

Alright everyone, hope you all have been enjoying reading my blog and I have something to tell now. In view of something major coming up in Sept (other than my registration), which requires me paying more concentration on it (I'd better do), i'm taking a break (in blogging) till maybe after mid-Sept. Will probably still blog one or two if hands are unbearably itchy hehe.Pls wish me luck on the "

Inspiration

This is Barton Kamen, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics and pharmacology, as well as chief of the division of pediatric hematology/oncology in Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

From a classic doctor’s black bag stashed beneath his desk at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), Barton Kamen, MD, PhD, pulls out a couple of magic tricks. Now you see the scarf. Now you don’t. Kamen