June 30, 2022

It's been awhile since I've sat here and typed my thoughts and musings. Mainly I've been struggling with atrial fibrillation turning into atrial flutter. In a few words my pulse falls sometimes in the upper 30s so at night I'm aroused enough to know I need more blood flow so I get up and read, get water, take a pee, and then flop down on the downstairs couch or during the day feel very tired and lethargic so I may go to the gym, drink coffee, or take a nap. Well after being on a heart monitor after Ecg diagnosis of atrial flutter I have a more permanent problem requiring a pacemaker. Tomorrow I'll get my heart conduction to revert to sinus rhythm through external electric shock paddles timed to induce this rhythm and then surgery to implant the pacemaker with electric wired leads to the heart. I should be home tomorrow evening. 

Yesterday we (Rebecca, Miya my grandaughter, and Gary a friend) hiked Aiea Loop Trail with a diversion to H3 overlook 5.4 miles, 970 feet elevation under four hours. Alert and enjoying this small adventure we ran into Tom Mendes's group so smiles, welcome, and some sharing with good hiking friends. Myrtle asked me to recommend books for her reading so I put together a shorter list as follows.

"My reading over the past 2 years is varied in subject and style.

Robert Sapolsky Behave is more of a text book about brain interactions so if you want to immerse yourself and gain some understanding try it.
In the same type Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer will take you on a journey of discovery.
Katie Mack in The End of Everything explains cosmology as far as we know.  The Enigma of Reason by Hudo Mercier and Dan Sperber will show you how reasoning serves our evolutionary gifts but maybe not our understanding. In The Extended Mind Annie Murphy Paul helps us appreciate how our mind is enhanced through space and our interactions. I’ll skip over my readings concerning quantum physics instead go to Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr a wonderful work of fiction that will transport you to the past, the future, our environment, and then your a donkey and then a bird going to heaven while another protagonist is putting on a play for high schoolers but Oh No our hero attempting to save our owls has a bomb! Paul Offit in You Bet Your Life describes the bumpy road to medical innovation and medical mistakes. Benjamin Labatut in When We Cease to Understand the World gives us a journey of discovery which is interesting and new to me but also quite disconcerting. If you like mystery and suspense with a science fiction bend read The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier very enjoyable read. Lastly Punch Me Up To The Gods by Brian Broome is the book I mentioned during our hike.
Great to chat and enjoy our island together.
Leonard "

Well, since I had a chance to look at my Kindle list also so I'm expanding this topic. Of the above list Myrtle wanted me to recommend my more favorite. Cloud Cuckoo Land is very engrossing. The Anomaly is a detective story science fiction with a surprise ending that draws you in to enjoy the ride. The Extended Mind brings you to appreciate how technology and human culture, architecture (and use of space), and creativity expands our mind and horizons. Brian Broome writes with such candor and openness about poverty, racism, substance abuse, sexual discrimination, etc. that I'm shaken and speechless. Benjamin Labatut uses fact and fills in the unknown with fiction to enlighten and describe how we have had discoveries sometimes serendipitous and sometimes horrifying. 

Now my Kindle list brings me to recommend more. Hugh Howey has come up in other blogs. His Silo series is worth reading all of them. Robert Axlerod in The Evolution of Cooperation gives me a grounding in game theory and a grasp of thinkers concerning social contract and writing in evolution such as Dawkin's The Selfish Gene. Tali Sharot in the Optimism Bias carries on to show us how rational thinking has such pitfalls and may be our evolutionary gist or handicap.  In science fiction, Andy Weir has started with The Martian a wonderful book of ingenuity and survival and so far his last Hail Mary takes us to the stars for another wonderful adventure. Yukio Mashima of Hari-kari fame in Life for Sale describes how a suicidal man finds customers who will pay him for his goal! Broken For You by Stephanie Kalos is a great book of fiction with complex characters and interesting comments regarding art. The Golem and the Djinn by Helene Wecker is so well written wonderful fantasy with a Jewish lore twist. I have written about the Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu before so much to enjoy! Blake Crouch in Recursion is mind blowing adventure detective science fiction romp. But the piece de resistance of science fiction is James Corey's multiple novels called The Expanse which once I started I had to finish. Along the same line I came across Octavia E. Butler who wrote many science fiction novels (Seed to Harvest and Wild Seed, etc.). I know little of the history of central and South America but Marie Arana has written a winner with Silver, Sword, and Stone. There is so much here but at the end I shook my head since history is repeating itself! Aarti Shanani in Here We Are:American Dreams American Nightmares has written a knockout memoir concerning our immigration systems inhumanity at times towards people helping build a better America. 

This brings me to my elephant in the room. A woman who is concerned or knows she is pregnant now in some states can not get consultation and services! Brings me back to my days as a first year psychiatric resident in Boston where we had a patient who was pregnant wanting an abortion so she claimed she was suicidal hoping she'd get services she wanted. So far I have not been aware that as a human species we have concluded that a fetus has a right to life. We all understand that life begins in a woman's uterus and birth signals a personhood on the breathing infant. We have laws in place to protect infant life and I have examined woman convicted of infanticide. Some of us have embraced religious doctrine that require the devotee to see life's beginning at conception. Therefore those people with these beliefs will not contemplate abortion. A choice they follow quite willingly. But now some of our states legislature have passed laws wanting all women to follow these doctrines and beliefs criminalizing choice of abortion as a crime and allowing citizens of the state to hound women and others if they think they have chosen abortion. Gets my heart rate up!

Well, whose most affected! If I had a wife now pregnant with our fetus who wanted an abortion (since she's almost 70 and I'm almost 83) and I lived in one of these states I have money and resources to we'd fly to a permissive state and follow through with the abortion. Yes, I know some of these states are thinking of more draconian laws attempting to make my traveling for this purpose a crime. In any case for now my wife and I are in the clear. We're just inconvenienced with the logistics of travel. Simply stated we have enough money. The affected are the poorer members of our society such as people of color, immigrants, etc. Listening to NPR the other day I heard from some of these people. One woman who was of the anti-abortion camp with four children, going to school having a hard working husband often absent working from the family found herself pregnant again and both she and her husband wanted to welcome the new member but her history of preeclampsia symptoms, nausea, vomiting, lying in bed with distress while her six year old was trying to parent the three year old realized that they were descending further into debt, poverty, and family breakup. She got an abortion and on the radio was not guilty but thankful for the services she received. Now graduated from college with a healthy thriving family of four she was glad to advocate for others to have this choice available to them. So I'm very upset that our Supreme Court made a political decision against our vulnerable populations. 

Our planet is changing so that we have more intense storms, wildfires, hot temperatures killing animals, insects, and vegetation, melting our poles and causing coastal flooding and devastation. Our Supreme Court wants to hamper our government so that we are less able to tackle our global warming problems! The court is working to hamper federal government and allow state government more say in a global problem. Our history shows us that when state government power overrides federal government power  racism, bigotry, and poverty ensues while social injustices flourish and oppression prevails. We do have three branches of government so I'm hopeful our congress and executive branches can check these bad trends.  

So some states want to restrict voting and greatly inhibit democracy. Our former president had led a conspiracy top overturn our last election by political maneuvering and mobs insurrection leading to deaths. The details of this are chilling and frighten me since the mob was so close to killing our legislators. I applaud those Republicans that stood up to Trump and those citizens who can work together to shore up democracy. The world I want to see here in the U.S.A. should incorporate all citizens and respect our rights regardless of status.  

Well, the other elephant in the room for me is our wars against each other. The Ukraine conflict is very troubling since Putin does have access to nuclear weapons and is unstable. Xi himself insulated from his people except for sycophants and fellow handlers who do not consult free thinkers and scientists but become convinced that their logic for action is the right course can fall into a war with Taiwan and then where are we? North Korea has a tyrant with nuclear weapons. In short, we have unstable governments and government leaders who can lead us to Armageddon! 

Now I want to change direction since you and I alone have little influence that we can perceive to change any of these problems towards better solutions. Some of the books I mentioned are avenues to delight in. However, with her permission I'll show you a photograph of someone who does bring a lot of joy to my life!

Leonard