Hi Toma,

It’s Toma, I know you are 86 years old so I figured I would send you a letter like the olden times. This week I read some interesting articles for my literature class. You probably don’t remember them so I’ll give you a quick recap.

The first article I read was called Doing Disease, by Annemarie Mol. This article follows the observations of Mol who had access to a University hospital in the Netherlands which she called Hospital Z. Mol talks about how “good doctors” may tell their patients an accurate diagnosis or some facts but they can struggle with empathy. People’s fear is not a disease doctors are trained to heal. Mol and other social scientists criticize many doctors for neglecting psychosocial health.

Mol talks about a Mr. Gerritsen, a 62 year old man who’s doctor take a different approach; listening. This method of mixing social science with medicine seems like a better approach that leaves the patient feeling better mentally as well as physically. I hope you have a doctor like this!

The second reading I had was titled Neighbour Rosicky. Yes, that is how “neighbor” was spelled. This piece read more like a narrative as opposed to the last one. Rosicky is a farmer and his doctor advices him to lay off the hard work and let his sons take over as his heart is not as healthy as it used to be. The doctor has a relationship with Rosicky and likes the old man a lot. The story continues and we meet Rosicky’s kids, wife, daughter in law, and we begin to see that Rosicky can’t get ahead in life. This is something I am afraid of, have you gotten ahead in life Toma? At the end of the story Rosicky finally dies, but even though some people may have thought he was a loser I realized that he actually lived a fulfilling life. He had a great family, wife and enjoyed the simple things in life. This seems like a good way to live life, be content with less and cultivate warm relationships.

Another reading I had was by the author She Chien, a fellow triton from UC San Diego. The title is Mechanotransduction and endothelial cell homeostasis: the wisdom of the cell. The article begins with a description of Endothelial cells and what functions they serve such as cell migration and proliferation. They go on to describe how these cells deal with stress or pressure and a lot scientific jargon. This was the most difficult reading for me. While the previous readings were told as a story this reading is very sterile and mechanical. As a creative person I did not enjoy this particular reading. One tool that helps me understand this article was the double click. When I double click I have the option of getting the dictionary definition so I can very easily look up unknown words. Is this now outdated technology? How to you look up definitions in the future?

However there is another thing impeding my ability to understand this reading; math. The reason I became a communications major was so I could avid math. The article has a lot of chemistry which was difficult to understand as I never passed chemistry in high school. Do you understand chemistry now? Eh, I’ll learn it later.

However I did learn one thing; while “The wisdom of the cell” can help us in maintaining our bodies and health we also need “The wisdom of the body” and “The wisdom of the mind” to truly make everything work together. Seems like common knowledge but hey at least I know there is hard science backing that up. At least UC San Diego signed off on it so I will accept it’s findings. Go Tritons!

The final reading we had was a poem by Margaret Atwood titled The Woman Who Could Not Live With Her Faulty Heart. Interesting, this is also about a heart. Atwood has a weird way of breaking up the sentences so they do not line up as well. Could it be that they are like heart beats? Our heartbeats do not wait for us to finish our sentence, they simply pound away. The way the author describes the heart is very graphic and not lovey dovey at all, it reminds us that hearts are wet and gross. I believe the author is writing about how the heart is never satisfied and it brings her a lot of suffering. Perhaps the cure it to rid our selves of desire?

A lot of interesting thoughts this week! I’ll write to you soon Toma!

Love,

Toma