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Miscellaneous Debris

Friday, October 18, 2002  

Surely the folks who are so opposed to socialized medicine have never spent a morning like mine. Why is that, in order to spend five minutes with a harried, disinterested specialist, I first had to:

  • Set up an appointment with my primary care provider.
  • Wait two weeks.
  • Take off three hours of work in order to spend five minutes with my harried, disinterested primary care provider, who barely looked at me before referring me to a specialist.
  • Wait another two weeks.
  • Take off another three hours of work in order to spend five minutes with said specialist, who barely looked at me before handing over two prescriptions, shaking my hand, and rushing out of the examination room.

I have enough friends and relatives in the health profession to know that things are tough all over. No one's pleased with the current situation (except, perhaps, for a few HMO executives and pharmaceutical manufacturers). But, as I sat and waited (and waited) this morning, all I could think of was that Congressman who in the 1950s objected to government mandated Polio vaccinations because it smacked of Socialism. (I don't have the book with me right now, but I'll track down the reference when I get a chance.) That sounds so absurd, but the rhetoric has changed little in fifty years. All in all, a really unpleasant reminder that all politics is local.

Short Take. I'll eventually get around to writing (much) more about this, but I want to mention quickly that, while vacationing in Phoenix, Joanna and I had the chance to see Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Herberger Theater. After reading and rereading these plays over the last four years, after writing about them, after, in fact, creating a dissertation topic just as an excuse to spend more time with these characters and with Kushner's language, I couldn't believe my luck when I picked up a Sunday edition of the Arizona Republic and discovered that the Actors Theater was staging both parts on consecutive nights. It was awesome (and I really wish that the common use of that word hadn't stripped it of its power). I was most looking forward to a scene in which the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg appears to help deliver the Kaddish to Roy Cohn. Like most scenes in these plays, its success depends on the actors and director striking a fine balance of tragedy and humor. I ended up in tears, stunned, once again, by a strange and extraordinary encounter with grace.

Song of the Moment. And speaking of grace . . . I have been following The Tragically Hip since becoming enamored of Atom Egoyan's film, The Sweet Hereafter. His use of the Hip's "Courage" is pitch perfect. Although I've never had a chance to see them in concert — the Canadian band seldom makes trips to the American South (and I don't really blame them) — this version of "Grace, Too" just kills me. It has the ecstatic energy of the best live performances, but it's something about that bass line and the way that Gord Downie unleashes the line, "Armed with will and determination / And grace, too," that rips me up.

For film buffs. I was cleaning out my favorites folder at work and found this. I don't even remember visiting Midnight Eye, but it's a wonderfully informative and immaculately designed site devoted to "The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema."

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