Our family braved a cold New York city weekend to see “A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical.” Read my review and a few suggestions for a trip to the Big Apple.

Doctors and nurses have some challenging interactions with some of their patients.  What is we could change our thoughts and feel love? It helps with improved empathy and renewed curiosity for our patient’s problems. Most of all, thoughts of love feel so much better for the clinician than resentment, frustration, and cynicism. Can we love our patients as ourselves?

Suleika Jaouad changes the narrative of the patient memoir when she embarks on the hero’s journey across America to seek answers to her fundamental question.  How could she start to live after an aggressive form of cancer hijacked her barely started adult life? Read ‘Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted’ to find out.

I am influencing in some old-fashioned ways. I wrote two chapters in a new textbook. I have reviewed dozens of books. I teach doctors and nurses the lessons of my own book. I mentor students and fellow writers. Most importantly, I help family and friends to understand their medical problems and hospitalizations. I am proud to be an influencer.