Daring Greatly

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again...who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worse, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly."

Theodore Roosevelt

The concept of 'daring greatly' is one I try and inspire in my patients on a daily basis. When patients who are in pain come in for treatment I try to elevate them to new heights of committment to their recovery. When smokers are trying to quit, hypertensive patients are trying to lose weight and when patients who have sustained some injury in the course of their work, I try to help focus them to move the patients to a successful conclusion to their problem. Getting our 'game face' on as we turn and walk back into the fire to face more bullets is important in the healing process.

Too often in life, we all get dragged down by misery and drudgery especially when struggling with a health issue. It is part of the doctor's job to prescribe treatment to be sure but our patients rise to the challenge and succeed much better when they are infused with a do-or-die attitude and a fighting spirit.

The next time your doctor starts you on a medication, fixes a laceration or tells you that you have a new health challenge to overcome, remember that there is some fight in you and that going down swinging is better than just going down quietly.

Once more into the breach, dear friends!

Special Purpose

Navin: "Wait a minute - what's happening to my special purpose?"

Patty: "What's your special purpose?"

Navin: "Well when I was a kid my mom told me... there goes my special purpose! And someday I'd find out what my special purpose was!"

Patty: "Today's the day!"

Navin: (the whole trailer shakes) "Hey, this is like a ride!"

The Jerk - 1979

Now that my family is getting older and my kids are starting to wise up to "things", I find myself reaching back for humorous references to sex as a way of comforting my soul. Father's are not supposed to be very comfortable with explaining these things to their daughters. I would think that with all of my experience, it would be pretty simple. But my insides get all twisted up and I find myself wanting to just change the subject when it comes up or when I think the conversation will suddenly lurch towards human reproduction.

Kids just spring this stuff on you without warning. One minute you are talking about math homework or the gravity on the moon and the next minute you are comparing tampons to pads. I paste a stupid smile on my face and say, "Gee, I'm not sure how much a tampon weighs on the moon" and they look at me like I'm someones poor, lost, injured, ugly cat.

Guess I'll just practice my lessons on life in the mirror just in case so I don't look too much like an idiot to my daughters. That would not be cool.

Thank goodness for Steve Martin.

My Vermont Neighbors

Samuel Kaymen, Founder of Stonyfield Farm, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Samuel founded Stonyfield Farm in 1983. Samuel, his wife Louise and their six children milked, fed and cared for the small herd of Jersey cows, and made the first batches of Stonyfield FarmYogurt in a little room off their barn. After 17 years in the yogurt-making business, Samuel is going out to pasture with the rest of the cows!
Samuel and Louise are growing their own food, cutting their own firewood and getting their electricity from the sun.


This an interesting biography to me because I knew Mr. Kaymen back when we were all growing up in southern Vermont. He was a very high energy sort of fellow who was always out with his cows and carrying milk pails. Later, when I was in high school at a Waldorf School called, High Mowing School in New Hampshire, Sam's children attended and he worked on the farm there teaching the students basic animal husbandry. It is interesting to contemplate how someone so ahead of his time in the area of organic and sustainable food sources could have built a national brand based on his idea.

At the same time our family lived near the Kaymen family, my parents started a health food store called, The Butler's Pantry in Westminster West, Vermont. The store was one of the first in the state to offer grains, dried peas, lentils and so forth in bulk. Customers could purchase grains by the pound by scooping these from large bins. This was very unusual concept at that time. We ultimately built our own home and heated and cooked with firewood. We had indoor plumbing but there was also a hand pump in the back yard. We had a garden and would drive to a small dairy in Brattleboro with our gallon jars and the farmer would fill these up with fresh milk for us to take home.

Our childhood friends were David and Stephen Major who lived up the road. David started a very successful sheep cheese business and Stephen became a large animal vet. The sheep cheese is an award winning product and is carried in exclusive shops all over the US and in Europe. The cheese is cured in a cave built for this purpose and here is a photo of the actual cave they constructed in Vermont. The following is a brief description of their enterprise;

The Majors have been extremely successful in recent years, receiving numerous awards for their cheese, including the prestigious “Best of Show” award at the 2000 American Cheese Society’s competition at Sonoma, Calif., and best U.S. Sheep Cheese at the 2001 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest.



Another friend and neighbor was Jesse Haas who is a successful and award winning childrens author. Her website is, http://www.jessiehaas.com/


Yet another was Philip Price who is a musician and whose father was a screenwriter for film and television. You can hear his music on: http://www.philipprice.com/


My mother, Ann Johnson emigrated to Israel and became a successful author in her own right. She has written four books and has done book tours and written articles for several publications. She lives on the West Bank in Israel and holds dual citizenship.

Miryam of NazarethWoman of Strength & Wisdom
Author : Ann Johnson
Format: Quality PaperbackPages: 128Dimensions: 6x9ISBN: 0-87061-233-6Published: Jul 2005
2006 Benjamin Franklin Award Winner for "Cover Design: 1-2 Color"
Woman of prayer, faith, and confidence--this is the Mary of Nazareth we meet in Ann Johnson's contemporary portrait of the mother of Jesus. Miryam of Nazareth is told in three parts: prayer reflections on the women of the Old Testament; a collection of Magnificats that use gospels events for personal spiritual enrichment; and a description of Mary's life among the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem after the resurrection of Christ. These three parts combine to reveal new depths for understanding Mary as a Jewish woman and the mother of Jesus.

Summary: The most astounding thing about these people is that we all lived in the same village in Vermont at the same time all within two miles of each other. It was no accident that there seemed to exist this creative pool of artists, writers and craftspeople. Vermont at that time was a sort of mecca for people who wanted to return to a simpler life and create a quality family environment. Westminster West, Vermont is such a tiny village that it has no stop sign and no store. The nearest town is Putney which is famous for it's co operative health food stores, the Putney School, cross country skiing and home to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The First Fifty

"I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find—at the age of fifty, say—that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about."
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

In less than a week I will be turning 50! This means that most of the very active first half of my life is over and I will be starting off on the second half. I have a few regrets about the first fifty years, regrets about all the ways I treated others;

- That kid at summer camp who I picked on and teased? I really should have gone a step further and really made him pay for picking on that other kid.

- That girl in high school (I never remember her name) should have gone out with me instead of that guy who I punched and told he was a real loser (I always forget his name too).

- That kid I gave the bloody nose to in second grade because he was picking on some other kid? He should'nt have climbed up that tree where I could throw road apples at him all day until he cried. (I was only in second grade but it was too good an opportunity to pass up).

There are other regrets but if I listed them here it would make me look like a softie and I'm a really tough-as-nails doctor.....okay, okay... family doctor (we can't all work in the ER).

Fifty is going to be really cool. I still have pretty good knees and my eyes are still okay as long as my bifocals don't turn into trifocals. My kids think I should get a tattoo and an eye patch so that will be pretty fun then I can be a Dad and a pirate. My wife still thinks I'm still handsome and now that my hair line is receeding things are really going to heat up at my house around Valentine's Day (if you know what I mean) and as long as my back does'nt give out, I'll be able to still do some killer pushups at the beach in front of the refreshment stand when everybody is watching.

Anyone interested in doing the half Ironman in July in Providence should sign up since I'll be racing this summer. I'll be the one at the starting line on the beach getting ready for the swim with the red Superman cape around my neck and an ego as big as a house.

Note: I would like to thank my parents, brothers, sisters, wife and children for putting up with me and for being such a great support. I try to call my family on birthdays and holidays but I sometimes forget. It must have been a trying first 50 years for them so I pledge that the next 50 will not be so difficult. I'll change and try and be a better son, brother and husband. In the next 50 years, my family will not recognize me because I am going to be less egotistical and pay a lot more attention to them. Because they are all very important to me and besides....I might need someone to help me find my trifocals.

Fatherhood and The Crackpot

"Everybody has the right to express what he thinks.

That, of course, lets the crackpot in.

But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in."

Harry S. Truman

I worry about my daughters and fret over the partners they will choose as adults. It is intensely interesting to me to hear how others have coped with this source of stress and to be an observer as young families in my practice grow and disperse. The life stories and experiences that people have are far more interesting than the life events of the rich and famous in the tabloid magazines that seem to appear in our office lunchroom. I was speaking to a patient today whose daughter has recently been married. The patient seemed pretty pleased with the match but is not sure how things will work out. This daughter has been in my practice for several years so hearing that she had survived her teen years and gone on to forge a serious relationship and ultimately become married was a great relief. I do not have any sons so I have no idea how fathers and mothers cope with the hazzards and trials of growing teenagers. I do recall being one once but it was a lot more fun being an adult.

The wiley 'crackpot' is always out there, lurking in the malls and college campuses. This chap may look like an upstanding citizen and may have a pedigree or resume that proclaims him to be someone who might impress me as a future father-in-law. But I have a sneaking suspicion that my young daughters will have a few bumps along life's road as they navigate along, veering around the various crazy people, crackpots, co dependents and other types that threaten to derail their happiness along life's highway. As a professional 'Crackpot Spotter' I will be ever on the alert for these ne'er-do-wells that may come along. My daughters are just going to have to put up with my superior judgement and go along with my suggestions as they grow older.

Father knows best....not!

*Cartoon Credit: Lawrence Gilson

Revenge of the Community

"If it was revenge, it was the revenge of the community."

Ian Fleming.

Recently, I have talked with several people who have been affected by close friends who have committed suicide. There is nothing subtle or petty about this incredible act of self destruction. This single act has left those behind without any mooring or compass with which to navigate the rest of their otherwise human experience. It is not only the family and associates of the victim who are affected but it is the community at large that suffers when a person takes his or her own life. Doctors also are often at a complete loss to comfort or aid those left behind, so overwhelming is this final act of one individual person.

Murder and aggravated assault have not been occupying my thoughts recently although when these occur in the community, it is equally devastating and there are even more victims involved. The community tries to right itself and go on as before but there is always and forever a void and a failing that lives within the people associated with these tragedies.

We humans are, by our nature so protective of our community of people. The "revenge of the community" in the opening quote might be simply a call to rally around the victims left behind in these tragedies and renew our committment to watchfulness and focused intervention when a member of our community begins to drift away. As a family doctor, I percieve these great upheavals in our town and among my patients and can only stand back and catch my breath like everybody else and wait for the storm to subside on the horizon.

Jackie Chan vs. Ozzy Osbourne

Sometimes the winds of fortune simply blow someone's way and sometimes a person has to sail their boat into the great storm of fate, risking life and limb just to have a chance at a lucky break. Let's examine and contrast the lives and careers of two famous people to see how they have achieved success.

Jackie Chan has become famous all over the world for his daring stunts and action movies. He is one of the first Chinese actors to cross over from the martial arts genre popular in the Far East and to make a name for himself in Hollywood. Jackie works when he is injured, he works when he is sick and he does everything he has to do to excel on the screen and to become an entertainment icon.

In contrast, Ozzy Osbourne seems to have been given a golden ticket in life. While he grew up in poverty and found his way to fame with his band, Black Sabbath, Ozzy seemed to lack a certain 'panash' for hard work and self promotion. His rise to fame and fortune seemed to rely mostly on the work of others, most notably, his wife and promotor, Sharon. Now well into middle age and an admitted alcoholic and drug addict, Ozzy still seems to drink from the well of life despite his infirmity and limited ability to cope with the basic tasks of daily living.

In a side by side comparison, let's see how these two stack up:
Jackie makes movies.
Ozzy makes....music.
Jackie has several black belts in all forms of martial arts.
Ozzy has several black belts.
Jackie's hair defies gravity.
Ozzy's hair does not defy gravity.
Jackie can jump up walls and kick over trucks to save the girl and get the bad guy.
Ozzy clings with both hands to his microphone stand....so he does not fall down.
Jackie has his own production company and works tirelessly to further his career.
Ozzy has...Sharon....and the kids.

Fate has been very kind to Ozzy who has managed to be in the right place at the right time despite his relentless attempts at self destruction. Ozzy has made a successful career of co dependency, on everything and everybody. Jackie Chan has taken falls, broken bones, taken personal and professional risks and sacrificed a great deal to ascend to the heights of fame and popularity. Fate is very strange that way.

So, the next time you are relaxing at home watching 'Rush Hour' and listening to an old Black Sabbath LP on your turntable, you might want to reflect on these two vastly different people, now in the twilight of their careers (especially Ozzy) and thank your lucky stars that you don't have to work that hard (e.g,Jackie) or be that lucky (e.g, Ozzy) to be happy and successful.