HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-07-30, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2009. PAGE 5.
Bonnie
Gropp
TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt
I get up at 4:30 every morning. I like the
quiet time. It’s a time I can recharge my
batteries a bit.
I exercise and I clear my head and I catch up
on the world. I read papers. I look at e-mail. I
surf the web. I watch a little TV, all at the same
time.
I call it my quiet time but already I’m
multitasking.
I love listening to music, so I’ll do that in the
morning, too, when I’m exercising and
watching the news.
– From a New York Times interview with
Robert Iger, CEO of Disney.
Bob? Hey, Bob? BOB!
It’s me, over here. No, not on the phone, not
on the screen, not at your door. In the flesh.
Got a news flash for you, Bob – that’s not
‘quiet time’you’ve got going in the early hours
of your morning. That’s craziness. Craziness
worthy of a cranked up drughead on a
methamphetamine run.
You’ll be lucky if you have a mental
breakdown. It’ll save you from a fatal cardio
event.
It’s no use. Bob’s got his iPod buds screwed
in deep and he can’t hear a word I’m
saying.
Truth to tell, behaviour like Bob’s, which
only a few years ago would have earned a
diagnosis of obsessive/compulsive disorder, is
looking more normal all the time.
Consider the latest Apple iPhone
Application. Most of us have mastered the art
of chewing gum while walking, but even the
most technologically adept among us will
recognize the challenge of simultaneously
walking while tracking our e-mail.
Well, stand easy, ubergeeks. The folks at
Apple have come up with ‘E-mail ‘n’ Walk’.
It’s a package that takes a live feed from your
phone’s camera (you DO have a working
camera in your cellphone, do you not?) –
which is mounted on the rear of the device.
This allows you to see what’s in front of you
while you’re walking and checking your e-
mail.
The text of your e-mails appears as white
lettering superimposed on top of the video
feed so that you can read the e-mail at the
same time you’re dodging pedestrian traffic,
garbage cans, dead pop tins and mounds of
dog poop – brilliant, yes?
Er, no. Stupid, actually. But then I speak as
an enthusiastic Luddite.
I Twitter not. Neither do I Facebook, iPod or
BlackBerry.
I have a cell phone, yes, because I am
approaching decrepitude and I still walk with
my dogs in the woods each morning. If I fall
and snap a femur I would prefer to be found
before the snow flies.
So I carry a cell phone, but only family
members and my dog sitter know the number.
As a matter of fact, I don’t recall the number
myself, though I’m sure I have it written down
somewhere.
I resist full immersion in the technological
tsunami because frankly, I don’t have time –
and I wonder where other folks find the hours
to fritter away on tweets and blogs and all the
other lame communication fartlets that bubble
up unbidden about us.
Christopher Moore thinks he knows. Moore
is a B.C. novelist and he thinks the web is a
time vampire.
He believes that books aren’t getting written
because would-be authors are AWOL, surfing
the internet.
“I think that a lot of creative people want to
be working on their craft, want to be thinking
big about what they are doing (but) the culture
is encouraging them to think small,” says
Moore.
Moore advocates a voluntary unplugging in
order to get away from what he calls “the
constant buzzing of the hive mind”.
Naturally, Cyberworld has invented a
program for that.
The program is called Freedom and it is
designed to protect you from the internet.
Installed on your computer, Freedom can be
set up to prevent you from e-mailing, surfing,
browsing, on-line shopping and game-playing
for periods of time ranging from 60 seconds to
eight hours.
The idea is to free you from yourself – to
give you some time away from mindless
cyber browsing to actually do something
creative.
I think Robert Iger, the Disney CEO should
install Freedom on his PC. Or he could try a
program that’s probably already installed in
his home office.
Next time he gets up at 4:30 in the morning,
instead of turning on his PC and his TV and
climbing on his stationary bike, Bob could go
to the window and look east. See that big red
ball on the horizon, Bob? That’s the program’s
logo. It comes with a random sound track –
robins, sparrows, crows, sometimes a dog bark
or two.
It’s a cool program – no commercials, no
virus alerts – and best of all, it’s a free
download!
Whaddya think, Bob? Bob?
It’s no use. He’s not listening.
Arthur
Black
Other Views It’s a weird, wired world
Ontario’s next big revolution in health
care will be more doctors smiling and
shaking hands with patients.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of
Ontario, which regulates the profession, is
starting this crusade for congeniality.
Doctors generally do a good job providing
medical treatment, the college says, and most
will agree. But they do not show enough
friendly, reassuring body language, which also
helps in treatment.
Research indicates body language, such as
posture, facial expressions, gestures and other
movements, can convey true feelings, it
claims, even more than words.
Examples are common, it says, but not
foolproof and are interesting talking points.
Nodding the head slowly to show the listener
is paying attention, but nodding quickly
suggests impatience.
Tilting the head implies curiosity or
uncertainty and widening the eyes suggests
interest and invitation.
Sniffing suggests displeasure or disgust and
the word sniff, of course, commonly is used to
indicate disparagement.
Touching the nose can be a sign someone is
exaggerating, and flattening, or pursing, the
lips denotes disapproval or frustration.
Touching the front of the neck can be a sign
of concern. A person who turns his or her
shoulders may be signaling a desire to leave,
and crossing the arms indicates anxiety, lack
of trust or discomfort.
Open hands imply sincerity or willingness to
help, but interwoven fingers and clenched
hands suggest self-restraint, tension,
frustration and anxiety.
People who bounce around on their legs
convey, obviously, impatience. Sitting with
legs crossed and stretched forward, suggests
relaxation, but sitting with legs tucked back
indicates anxiety, and shuffling feet, especially
while sitting, signals insincerity.
The College argues that body language is
the most important component in
communications, because people tend to
believe what they see more than what they
hear.
Patients have their own body language, it
says, which can include sitting with shoulders
slumped, sitting still, looking at the floor, not
making eye contact, squirming and wringing
their hands, which can indicate distress and
confusion, or smiles, which can indicate calm.
Doctors, it says, can recognize the patients’
body language and use it to improve their
treatment.
The college has a lot of advice for doctors. It
says they sometimes convey the wrong
message by standing too far from patients,
folding their arms, raising their eyebrows and
not making eye contact.
They would send more helpful messages, it
says, by greeting patients by smiling and
shaking hands, as soon as they see them and
when they leave, which would be one of the
simplest ways to convey care and interest.
Doctors also should make eye contact as the
most important, non-verbal indication they are
interested and engaged.
They should not flip through papers while
either doctor or patient is talking or sneak
glances at their watches.
They should mirror the language of patients,
smile when they smile, nod when they nod and
speak at the same speed, which can indicate
understanding or affirmation.
Doctors should not seem in a rush, anxious
to move on to the next patient as quickly as
possible, and not start a consultation until both
doctor and patient are seated, ideally without a
barrier, such as a desk, between them.
Doctors should indicate their openness by
being literally open, not crossing their arms
and legs, keeping their hands open, as a sign
nothing is concealed, and looking directly
toward their patients.
The College says doctors often position
themselves too far away to talk to patients,
when ideally they should be between 2 and 4
ft. away.
It says there is some evidence good body
language can have “therapeutic efficacy” –
years ago it would have been called a good
bedside manner.
This is not exactly the discovery of a cure
for the common cold, but everyone has met
doctors who talk down to patients and a little
more warmth might be a tonic.
Eric
Dowd
FFrroomm
QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk
At the crossroads of the quiet
countryside the little one-room school
stood sentry. A majestic maple spread
its leafy shelter across the corner of the yard
distant from the playground din. Beneath its
shady coolness two pinafored and pigtailed
little girls stood, shoulder to shoulder, hip to
hip, heads bent in confidential solidarity while
one wrote, the other read.
“There are big ships and small ships, but the
best ship of all is friendship.”
Not sure who said this first, but I was about
nine years old when I heard it for the first time.
My mother had scribbled these words into my
autograph book, just, as I’m sure, it had been
passed along to her in a scene similar to the one
described above.
It was my grandmother who gave me the
book, and she was of course “by hook or by
crook” the first to write in it. From there it was
up to me to make a nuisance of myself. I
pressed this treasured item into the hands of
every acquaintance, old and new, that came my
way over the course of the next few weeks,
intent on gathering their sentiments, until “by
pen or by quill”, every available space had
been filled.
From my father: “There’s a tree that grows in
heaven and its leaves will never fade. May you
be lucky enough dear girl to sit beneath its
shade.”
And from our boarder Pete: “I know a pig
that’s big and fat. Take care that you don’t get
like that.”
Swine seemed to be a popular inclusion, as
my brother’s version of roses are red, violets
are blue indicated that he had a pig that looked
like me.
Yes, many lovely sentiments made their way
onto those pages. But as it is with most
children, their obsessions and fads, the novelty
soon wore off for me and the autograph book
was tucked away, brought out only when
reference or reason reminded of its existence.
Though an autograph book was too dully-
Victorian to appeal on any level to me by the
time I’d become a cool modern teen, I never
forgot it. And hip as I may have been in my
mind, I’d have to admit that when I did think of
that book even then, it was with fondness.
That same feeling returned a few years ago,
when I came upon, not my long-lost treasure
but my mom’s. It had been tossed in with some
papers and old pictures, its dark, plain covers
well-worn, the bindings loose. Picking it up, I
smiled seeing inside the pencil scribblings,
scratches of perfect penmanship that indicated
an ingrained care and pride.
Reading (after asking first, of course) I
noticed that many of the words printed were
ones I remembered from my own book. They
were sweetly innocent poems and phrases,
some playful, others sincere, that had caught
interest enough to be remembered and shared
through generations.
That the legacy probably stops now makes
me a little sad. Sites like Facebook and
MySpace have replaced the autograph book,
which, yes have certainly expanded the
number of people we connect with. Words are
shared globally, connections are formed with
people you might not reach any other way.
Friends are rediscovered, families share
moments and photos.
But just as a love letter written by hand still
has a higher romance quotient than an e-mail
courtship as far as I’m concerned, I feel a little
wistful for some old-fashioned connections,
those quiet moments standing shoulder to
shoulder, head to head with someone in a quiet
corner, sharing friendship. Together.
Doctors get friendly with patients
Friends together
All great things are simple, and many can
be expressed in a single word: freedom,
justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.
– Sir Winston Churchill
Final Thought