A memoir

The Beauty in Breaking ~ by Michele Harper, 2020, memoir, 304 pages

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white.  Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband.  They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her.  Her marriage at an end, she began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the following years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken — physically, emotionally, psychically.  How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

The Beauty in Breaking is the story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing.  Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery.

1. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky.
2. How to tell the truth when it’s simpler to overlook it.
3. How to understand that compassion isn’t the same as justice.

As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present.  In this book, she passes along the necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.

Online comment:  "Overall, the author tells an incredible story of overcoming her childhood trauma, dealing with racism and sexism, and growing into an ethical human being."

1. On Monday, I wrote about the tittle (dot) over the letters i and j, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, I was thinking about okra and walking, HERE.
3. Wednesday's Word was "remit," HERE.
4. Thursday's subject was the Book Bike visit to the Crown Center, HERE.
5. Friday's "book beginning" was from Tom Brokaw's memoir, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with America's land rush

Beginning

In the late nineteenth Century, in the Great Plains of Middle America, the American savanna, the land rush was on.  It was a vast swath of real estate that was low on water and rich in challenges — from brutal winter seasons to scorching summers.  Until recently it had been the home of enormous herds of antelope and American bison, the magnificent beast prized for its rich pelts and thick cuts of red meat.

Never Give Up: A Prairie Family's Story ~ by Tom Brokaw, 2023, memoir (South Dakota), 139 pages, 10/10

Tom Brokaw’s father, Red, left school in the second grade to work in the family hotel — the Brokaw House, established in Bristol, South Dakota, by R. P. Brokaw in 1883.  Eventually, through work on construction jobs, Red developed an exceptional talent for machines.  Tom’s mother, Jean, was the daughter of a farmer who lost everything during the Great Depression.  They met after a high school play, when Jean played the lead and Red fell in love with her from the audience.  Although they didn’t have much money early in their marriage, especially once they had three boys at home, Red’s philosophy of “Never give up” served them well.  His big break came after World War II, when he went to work for the Army Corps of Engineers building great dams across the Missouri River, magnificent structures like the Fort Randall and the Gavins Point dams.  Late in life, Red surprised his family by recording his memories of the hard times of his early life, reflections that inspired this book.

Tom Brokaw is known as one of the most successful people in broadcast journalism.  Throughout his legendary career, Brokaw has always asked what we can learn from world events and from our history.  Never Give Up is a portrait of the resilience and respect for others at the heart of one American family’s story.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Pedal power

Yesterday, the Book Bike came to the Crown Center from one of our nearby libraries, bringing some free books for the residents and some books that we could check out using our library cards.  I added two free books to my own shelves and checked out another one using my library card.  I will tell you about them over the next few days (one is a novel and the other two are memoirs).  Our local book bike looks a lot like this one in Los Angeles.

At the moment, I am struggling through a very confusing book with alternating chapters about two characters (both women) on different sides of a war, and it's hard to keep up with the two different sets of people.  I may give up and throw it across the room.  (Well, not really, but I am feeling very annoyed.)

Today, I was out walking in the neighborhood just before time for our August "Birthday Bash" with a singer and cake and ice cream.  I didn't plan to go, but I decided "if someone invites me as I pass through the lobby after my walk, then I'll go."  One of my Russian friends said, "Come go with me."  So I went, and I did enjoy singing with everyone when the singer told us to join her on a few of the songs.

The word for today is REMIT

remit (/riˈmɪt/) verb = send back.  If you remit payment, you send it back to the person you owe it to.  This is why I am pondering the word "remit" in the first place:  I got a bill in the mail from my doctor, which included these words (in all captal letters, by the way):

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE AND REMIT TO:

So I'll set this to post for Wednesday Words, then go put the envelope in the outgoing mail.  I will also be getting in some more steps for today.

Two thoughts for today

Yesterday, I left my bag at the restaurant after lunch, taking my leftovers in one hand and my drink in the other.  Hours later, I was in a panic, realizing I had forgotten it.  So Jane, who had driven us to lunch, rushed me back over there.  As I came in the door, the woman who had taken our order was walking toward me with a great big smile on her face, holding out my bag.  Thank you so much, Patrice!

I have been doing a lot of walking in recent years, and it seems to be keeping me healthy.  However, my step-counter has a mind of its own, only counting the steps it decides to count.  If you use a pedometer you really like, would you please tell me what kind?  (I am 85, so one designed for runners is not for me.)

A tittle or two for today

tit·tle /ˈtid(ə)l / noun = a tiny amount or part of something.  The dot over the lowercase "i" and the lowercase "j" is called a tittle.  It may be a blend of "tiny" and "little."

Cat sayings on bookmarks

1.  Every day is Caturday.

2.  Stay paw sitive.

3.  You are purrfect.

4.  You are the cats pajamas.