Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 Because it is November, the month allotted for Thanksgiving in the United States, I have been thinking about gratitude. In some sense, it's a rather simple virtue to follow--look at what you have, and give thanks for it--but I have been realizing that it can go much MUCH deeper. aka more complicated. It is possible for me to be grateful for what I have, but still want more; therefore, I am not exactly content with what God gave me.  For example, I like the apartment we live in, but am often longing for a house big enough to allow for needing less under-bed storage and thus the chance to get the bedframe off of the cement blocks it's been sitting on for 4 years. This seems a small request, but I suspect that as far as humans and material stuff go, we are rather like the camel that only wants his nose out of the storm, but then slowly takes over the whole tent. In a pre-COVID era a year or so ago, I was at someone's house with lots of other women, and was slightly (okay, ver

 In the past few weeks, I have volunteered to be a street medic at public gatherings. The main takeaway is profound sadness. I am having a hard time believing the assaults I see happening are in the United States, in the present time. Naïve of me, I suppose.  As I stood facing thousands of Trump supporters who chanted obscene hatred in unison, threatening violence to those who disagreed, I felt like I was at Helm's Deep in the LOTR...except these people are my countrymen, perhaps even my neighbors. Only a half-dozen people expressed love towards the other side, and only 3 of them sounded sincere. And while I have seen pleas from each side to listen to the other's concerns, no one seems to be following through on that. Well, there's no person like your own person to change that. Let's get the ball rolling. I am concerned about - the effect each person has on the health of another -the way laws are interpreted and enforced to preferentially benefit one group -the increasi

  sci. amer. Sorry for the repetitive theme, but the pandemic sort-of consumes my life now. Once upon a time 3-4 months ago, while I was working with the Infectious Disease team at Georgetown, one of the doctors asked me if all of my friends and relatives were contacting me a lot with questions about SARS-CoV-2. I responded that actually, I was trying to convince many friends and family that COVID-19 was a big deal. eamc.org Unfortunately for both those friends/family and me, that has not changed. I am trying to figure out how to influence others' public health behavior without seeming to be overbearing, nasty, or unempathetic. It's not working. Last week, when Mark and I went to church physically for the first time in about 8 months, a friend came up to me to talk, and I learned that she is becoming more anxious and depressed with this pandemic [a problem all around, really] and is planning a trip to a particular part of the country--which I know is having a surge in COVID cas