Author Archives: JR Stanley

Guard carefully the fire that burns inside you. Remember how feeble the flame was at first, how it quivered in the frigid air, how the slightest breeze threatened to extinguish it. Remember how you nursed it along, with bits of the choice fuel, using your body to protect it from the winds. Remember the feelingContinue reading “Guarding fire”

Repetition is the basis of excellence. Do it until you get it right. Keep doing it until you cannot do it wrong. Repetition is where learning starts. As toddlers and children, repetition is how memory is built, muscles are developed into functional units, and how language is learned. The importance of repetition extends all theContinue reading “Again”

Waiting is the hardest part. Waiting 24 hours can feel like an eternity. In a fast paced world where responses via email, text, or social media are expected around the clock, pausing, contemplating, and allowing the situation to settle is one of the most difficult things to do. There is a pressure, a tension naggingContinue reading “Sleep on it”

Jack of all trades, master of none is the unfortunate default state. The beauty of specialization is that one can get better products and services for less time invested. Complete ignorance is discouraged as a cursory knowledge of what exists is required for productivity and establishing oneself within a relevant context. Furthermore, knowing the placeContinue reading “Breadth and depth”

A common refrain heard in medicine is “I should have done ________” or “I should quit practicing medicine and do _________.” The sentiment is well taken. The hours are long, the years of training are substantial, and often the job description and responsibilities have grown while the benefits and perks have decreased or stayed theContinue reading “S2.14 Choosing to stay”

What if on the last car ride before the end, the last moments at the bedside, the last roll down the hallway there was only silence. What if there was no scramble to get things in order, no panicked attempt to remember everything that must be done. What if there was no hurried goodbyes compressingContinue reading “S2.13 What If There Was Silence”

The critical, title job of a firefighter is to fight fires. Thanks to many improvements in building codes, preventative measures, technology, and awareness, the number of fires has dramatically decreased. Thus the role of the firefighter in the community has expanded to become that of a first-responder to a variety of situations including motor vehicleContinue reading “S2.12 Be Like The Firefighter”

Timing is everything. More specifically the timing of the end is everything. The place that the director calls cut, the moment that the movie cameras stop rolling, the place that we leave our characters in the last chapter of the book define how the story ends for the viewer, but not so for the charactersContinue reading “S2.11 Sunset Rides”

Everything has an expert. There are experts in sports, in arts, in sciences, in law, in medicine, in culture, in language, in engineering, in entertainment, in business, and in countless other venues. It is incredible what you can now get a masters degree or doctorate in. Whenever there is uncertainty or a question people runContinue reading “The Corona Diaries Episode IV: Expert”

Everyone wants the guarantee, the knowledge that it will be alright in the end. During uncertain times, when health or livelihoods are at stake, we want to have the promise that we will make it out the other side. When this cannot be genuinely assured, we may often settle for false assurance, the opinion ofContinue reading “The Corona Diaries Episode III: False Assurances”