Author Archives: JR Stanley

Preparation is critical. As the saying goes, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. This lesson is hardwired into individuals from the time of elementary school on, when projects requiring weeks or months of preparation are assigned with increasing frequency. In the early years of schooling, there is often little agency, a limited amount ofContinue reading “Preparing for Opportunity”

At basketball camp growing up, one of the sayings that was imprinted in every campers’ head was “repetition, the mother of all learning”. At that stage, it was just something that was repeated, rote memorization for the sake of avoiding being yelled at or having to run extra sets of lines. At that time itContinue reading “Repetition”

In Lewis Carroll’s book, Through the Looking Glass, Alice encounters one of the most memorable characters of the books, the Red Queen. The Red Queen is incessantly running but appearing to get nowhere despite her best efforts. Upon inquiring about this peculiar set of circumstances, Alice and the Red Queen have a memorable exchange:  “…inContinue reading “The Red Queen”

Everyone is waiting for normal to return, to go back to the good old days, the times before the pandemic closed down the world, before millions of people had died, when a belief in one’s immortality could still be maintained, when a sense of innocence about the future permeated the present. Since the beginning ofContinue reading “Back To Normal”

What makes you, You? There is the story, the question rather, of a boat. Suppose there is a wooden boat on the shore. This boat is taken apart one plank at a time, with each plank replaced in such a way that over the course of time the entire wooden boat has been replaced withContinue reading “You”

What if the most important thing is not who we are now but who we are becoming? What if it is not only what we do now but what we will do in the future that counts? What if we started to care about the tides of change under the surface more than the splashesContinue reading “Who We Are Becoming”

A body at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an external force. Likewise a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by an external force. This principle of inertia, as paraphrased from Newton’s first law, has many parallels with human motion, with human activity, as well. There is anContinue reading “Flow”

“At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse.” This oft quoted line from House of God is not unique to medicine, but applies across a wide swarth of life. The first question to ask when approaching an emergency is assessing the area for safety. Nothing turns a bad situation evenContinue reading “Anti-Frenetic”

There are few things as daunting as endless choices and open opportunities. This is the struggle of a writer staring at a blank page. This is the struggle of a sculptor gazing at a block of marble. This is the conundrum of the undecided college major. On a much shorter time scale, this is theContinue reading “Options”

There is always something.  There is always something to be unhappy about. There is always something that could have gone better. There is always something that could be optimized, a more ideal way. There is always another option, something else that could be tried.  There is always something.  There is always more. There is always the next thing. There isContinue reading “There Is Always Something”