tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post7876884517499853833..comments2023-10-26T05:49:59.824-04:00Comments on Reflections of a Grady Doctor: Strange Fruit.gradydoctorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10639816377218206777noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-89057945052949693042011-12-23T02:00:03.972-05:002011-12-23T02:00:03.972-05:00I love thinking of it that way... the knights at m...I love thinking of it that way... the knights at my round table. It's so true too... I have caught myself many a times thinking of my readers when I am writing. Especially the ones who read faithfully but never comment. <br />And I too am thankful that they make us think differently. I know I am a better nurse for it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03497289912197443753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-26254604874337421182011-12-15T12:39:57.656-05:002011-12-15T12:39:57.656-05:00Do better when you know better. Forgiveness is th...Do better when you know better. Forgiveness is the path to lead a fulfilled life.kathornburghnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-18061615043850079682011-12-15T01:13:13.158-05:002011-12-15T01:13:13.158-05:00I struggle with all of this too...you know the &qu...I struggle with all of this too...you know the "hate the sin not the sinner" approach to life because some days that distinction doesn't seem very clear to me. <br /><br />Your blog reminds me to sit with some of that discomfort and tension and learn from it...then, move past it as much as I can to doctor the human sitting in front of me...<br /><br />And...I believe strongly in grace and redemption in all manifestations of those words.MD2007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-89341314909838211202011-12-14T21:52:32.994-05:002011-12-14T21:52:32.994-05:00For me as a therapist, it is often important to se...For me as a therapist, it is often important to set aside my feelings for one hour and sit with someone else's often strong feelings. To be neutral and listen and learn. It is often hard when the other person's distress or life pain is similar to my own, past or present. But when I am able to do it, I have received such tremendous gifts from people. I have grown up into a more human feeling person through the 25 years I have been listening and learning. Of course, my lessons are not over, and I do better in the office than in my off-hours. <br /><br />That is what I felt in your encounter with this man. You briefly experienced being in his tatted skin and his post-prison world. It is a wonderful gift, for both of you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-8307872297550821042011-12-14T20:16:49.413-05:002011-12-14T20:16:49.413-05:00For some people who wear the swastika, it symboliz...For some people who wear the swastika, it symbolizes supremacy over anyone who is not white, as well as Jews.<br />My husband teaches in a county near you and they learn about WWI and WWII. Our county is the most diverse in GA. He was reminded by his Hindu students that the symbol, when turned on its side, represents peace and harmony. In fact many Hindu homes place this symbol near their doors like a Jewish household has its mezuzah by the door. Same symbol of peace and harmony for the Native Americans and Norse and countless others of peace. Darn those Nazis.Michele Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17030846420862437581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-89397828419421570972011-12-14T17:11:01.128-05:002011-12-14T17:11:01.128-05:00The town where my parents settled twenty years ago...The town where my parents settled twenty years ago still had an active KKK population. I had classmates whose grandfathers and fathers held positions of note within it. I was a mixed race child in a school where ethnic lines were well and clearly demarcated. The first year or two we lived there, I put up with a lot of racism from twelve year olds who had learned it from their parents. As they got older and realized that their narrow view of the world was just that, some of them came back and apologized for it and pretty much all of it stopped. <br /><br />I've had family members in prison (one was just released a few years ago after being in for 18 years) and your patient was right when he called it a different world. Those symbols of hate are a mark of belonging, a protection. He knew he was going to be in there for twenty years, and he must have been pretty young going in which makes twenty years seem like forever. So he got the gang tattoos because he was in for the long haul. He seems to have gotten a lot of them but as long as he was in, even getting just one a year adds up. <br /><br />At least now he has the decency to be ashamed of who he was, to know that it was wrong, to apologize for it. It would make it easier to stomach seeing them if I were having to treat him in some way to know that he no longer felt that way.Thatgirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13664379534257317554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-11329722109681252962011-12-14T15:34:37.521-05:002011-12-14T15:34:37.521-05:00It goes both ways. Honestly, I share much of your ...It goes both ways. Honestly, I share much of your philosophy of life, your outlook and attitudes, your belief in the goodness of the human soul, etc. I suppose this is what drew me to your blog in the first place (and why I have read every single post you have written since I found you, without fail, and also read through almost all of the archives already, with just a few more pages left to savor) - this intense kinship of spirit. However, the paths that we have taken to this intellectual, emotional, spiritual (even if not religious) place are vastly different and informed by very different experiences. So reading your perspective, even when it is very similar to mine, still gives me new insight, because while we may arrive at the same answer to the same problem, tracing the steps of your elegant solution is often more valuable than the answer itself.<br /><br />Could I separate the repentant man from old stains on his skin? I want to believe I could. I want to believe I could have the strength and magnanimity to rise above my shock and anger, to be able to extend my hand and help him out of the black hole which had stained his soul and his skin for a time. I want to believe that we can all rise above anger, fear, hostility, etc. - otherwise we may all be doomed.White Coat Dreamerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02805599382000688596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-6226008808489241972011-12-14T12:14:04.008-05:002011-12-14T12:14:04.008-05:00Yes.
Ever more. Yes.Yes. <br />Ever more. Yes.Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-38630898787780352292011-12-14T11:16:25.546-05:002011-12-14T11:16:25.546-05:00Who is it who said, "an unexamined life is no...Who is it who said, "an unexamined life is not worth living"? Well you, my dear Miss Manning, examine your life daily and it is WELL worth living. I agree with Lucy, we do share a common humanity and pain affects us all. Perhaps you were the one to take care of this young man because you COULD treat him with kindness. Someone whose heritage would make their reaction more personal, more hurtful was spared looking at those tatoos.Mary Alicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04358080186261021703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-61173667164563601912011-12-14T03:34:57.176-05:002011-12-14T03:34:57.176-05:00I commented on your blog the other day on the very...I commented on your blog the other day on the very post you refer to in this post and I am Jewish. People engage in ignorant behavior all the time, especially young people. Peace can't exist if we all walk around wounded from past persecutions to our peoples and retaliate or hold grudges to the ignorant among us. I believe the best way to peace in the world is to treat everyone in our lives with love and peace in our hearts. I believe that is the cure for ignorance. You seem to practice medicine with peace and love in your heart and embody this peace I speak of. I imagine you would have done exactly the same thing had the images been more personal to your background. That is how you seem to live. JoanneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3245783834297902042.post-20077116636414793012011-12-14T03:24:59.528-05:002011-12-14T03:24:59.528-05:00I remember the first time I ever heard that song, ...I remember the first time I ever heard that song, in history class last year. It was horrible, I just sat there and pinched my side so hard that my fingers were turning white, to stop myself from crying in the middle of class. I really couldn't stand it. It hurt me. I wondered to myself whether it was right for me to feel so much pain about it, as a white girl, a world and, I'd like to think, many decades away from all of that. <br /><br />But I think that yes, pain is the same, we're all relatives in our humanity. So maybe it doesn't feel as personal for me, in the way that mentions of the Holocaust might affect Jewish people, or certainly how the thought of your ancestors being lynched affects you. But it is most certainly personal to me on the level that we share a common humanity, and so I feel that pain deep in my heart, as well.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306290080896203929noreply@blogger.com