A great idea percolated into my consciousness today, built on the frame of a single thought leading to the next and then the next. Isn't this the way these mysteries unfold? I suppose very creative people experience this wonderful excitement on a regular basis. I do not and this makes what happened today all the more significant.
I drove along 5th Avenue in downtown Seattle on my way to the E.R. to spend the day with my Dad who took sick with a febrile illness today. My thoughts focused on things medical; like the modern efficiencies of our hospital's emergency facilities. The next thought took me to the norm of professional "back in the day"; not just 30 years ago or 15 years ago but even 5 years ago. "Back in the day", the concept of remembering and revering the way things were in that great place we call the past. All that changed (the operative word); the processes, the cultures, the styles, the beliefs, the way we did things and the ways we thought. And, the adjustments we made, myself individually and the profession collectively struck me as enormous and furthermore important.
Have I completely lost you?
In the midst of all the musing I thought about a 16 year old girl considering a future in medicine to the almost 57 year old seasoned physician, I thought....wow, all these snippets of memories, my experiences, my fears, my achievements, my failures..... all the bits and pieces that make up the whole.Perhaps these are of little interest to readers. Perhaps they will be. What's important for me is the writing. The memories need to become words on a page. They must.
In a moment, the idea gelled. A blog, an over the shoulder backward look, written as single posts but part of complicated whole. I envision nothing chronological, more of a crazy quilt. Also, nothing specific about patients; we medical bloggers must protect confidential information. Nothing overly sentimental. These swirling, every recurring memories need a forum. I know what to do: Blog.
The title...Back in the Day. A personal retrospective.
Ahead of the Wave remains intact, my present moment.
Back in the Day honors the past. Stay tuned.
I am so excited about your new blog and I see a book coming from this new adventure. Love it. Love it. You'll have so much to share. And folks will so relate to it.
ReplyDeleteBack In The Day - if you want Seattle memories from 79 - 97, just write me. I often think about this.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, when we think of historical records, we think of really old things. We think of recording the memories and oral histories of our parents' generation, our grandparents.
But have you ever tried to research stuff as recent as the 70s? really hard!!! We (people our age) have a lot of memories and oral history that will be lost if we don't record it.