errors of omission

are hurtful as well.

too little, too late.

i was not prepared to go softly into that good night,

but it would appear that the human heart has only room for so much.

rage, rage against the dying of the light

(such a bad habit of mine)

yet falling on silent ears and busy minds

my tears and words would simply be without worth.

goodbye. i will try to miss you only for a little while

and perhaps exhibit the grace

and do you the favor

of keeping quiet

blogstipated

but you already noticed that.

solution

from all the way across the long, highly-polished board room table the surgeon's gaze intensified, and my colleague's eyes widened as she stuttered.

i had been on call with this particular junior fellow, who was particularly sweet and particularly soft-spoken. i liked her a lot, and didn't want her to feel stressed out as she was bearing the brunt of an especially rough set of questioning. this last question was unusually tricky, and had that "read my mind, read my mind, guess what i'm thinking" quality to it.

my junior colleague did not know the answer to this one. i, having no other outlet for my maternal instinct, always desperately want to help the juniors, to protect and shelter them from potential defeat, humiliation, or surgeonwrath. my mind churned with potential answers, none of them the one he wanted-- i did not know the answer either.

fortunately, my colleague did well to reply to the question as best she could, and the answer ended up being a tricky little philosophical answer designed to open up further discussion- nothing we'd been taught before. no defeat, no humiliation.

after the conference i approached the poor lamb. "great job in conference this morning. it's so hard to be put on the spot like that, especially after working so hard through the night and not sleeping. i hope you feel okay about it."

"oh, yes. i'm fine. but thanks."

"seriously, [c]. i am sorry about that last question. i really, really wanted to step up on that one and take the hit for you, but i didn't know how. i was just sitting there, desperately trying to think of someway to divert his attention away from you, and i didn't know what to do."

"well," said my delicate, soft-spoken friend without missing a beat, "you could have farted."

i would never have thought of that solution. my respect for her problem-solving skills grew immensely.

i am so proud.

friendships

if you have a friend who lives in a place that may have just suffered a huge natural disaster,

contact them and make sure they are okay.

otherwise, how will you know if you still have a friend?

and maybe, just maybe if you didn't,

you don't.

yes, fortunately, all my friends and loved ones who live there are okay.