7/21/2025

Monday, July 21, 2025

D+255/183/1278

1925 John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial”

1930 US Veterans Administration was formed

1940 Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

1954 Geneva Accords for Indochina divided the French colonial territories into the countries of North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos

2024 Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris

 In bed before 10, up at 6.  

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 3 p.m.

A day at the VA.  I had 7 appointments at the VA today, between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.  5 of the appointments were pre-op tests, etc., for the surgery on August 5.  I'm writing this at 3:10, not having had anything to eat all day and feeling a bit pooped.  I'm not up to writing much, but I note the significant anniversaries today.

I am so thankful for the VA and its medical program for military veterans.  I'm especially thankful for Zablocki Medical Center.  I felt it again today during my few hours there.  There is something in the air there that one does not find in other hospitals.  You feel it from the staff and from the veterans themselves.  I'm not imagining it.  I say I love the place, and that's pretty true, not a feeling I've ever had for any other hospital, clinic, or medical facility.  

I was about one month shy of my 13th birthday when the Geneva Accords carved up what had been French Indochina.  I was about a month shy of my 24th birthday when my government sent me there on a fool's mission.  We should have learned from the French.

Joe Biden finally dropped out of his campaign for re-election on this date last year.  I know it's simplistic and reductionist and binary thinking, but I blame him for the re-election of Donald Trump and the consequent incalculable harm and suffering in America and the world.

Born again?  I had that 'seeing with new eyes' experience again, both at the VA and while waiting for Geri outside Sendik's.  I can't describe it in words; I think of it internally as my Ivan Ilyich experience.   People and things which are as ordinary as ordinary can be appear to be more alive, more unique, more interesting or even fascinating than they did in the prior 82 or 83 years of my life.  I wish I could talk with everyone I encounter, in the hospital waiting room and elevators, or in Sendik's parking lot, wherever.  I would like to ask each one to tell me about their mother and their father, what their experiences were in school, how they got into the line of work they are in, what they think and feel about God and religions, and so on.  Were they ever in the military? Why or why not?  What did they think of Vietnam and Iraq?  What do they think, if anything, about Afghanistan and Gaza?  Are they afraid of anything?  Do you have any favorite movies or novels? Who was your favorite teacher?  Why?  Favorite aunt or uncle?  Why?  Favorite president?  Least favorite president?  Why?  Best job?  Worst job?   Everyone has a history, a very personal story, and I find myself interested in all those stories, although the kinds of questions to which I'd like the answer and the kinds of questions we rarely ask one another.  Who says, "Tell me about your mom," or "Tell me what, if anything, scares you?  We know next to nothing of one another and I guess we like it that way, but now, at the tail end of life, I'm interested in the answers to such questions, especially the early life and value questions.  Old age goofiness?  Why do I think of that amazing image of the infant at the end of 2001?