ON SATURDAY AUGUST 11TH AT 9:15 I WAS ARRESTED ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE FOR TRYING TO GET TO SYNAGOGUE
https://joelsolkoff.com/on-august-11th-at-915-i-was-arrested-on-the-street-where-i-live-for-trying-to-get-to-synagogue/
ON SATURDAY AUGUST 11TH AT 9:15 I WAS ARRESTED ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE FOR TRYING TO GET TO SYNAGOGUE https://joelsolkoff.com/on-august-11th-at-915-i-was-arrested-on-the-street-where-i-live-for-trying-to-get-to-synagogue/
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Defeat Rep. Tom Marino
In September 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Marino to serve as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (“drug czar”).[15][1] In October, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) called on Trump to withdraw Marino’s nomination.[20]Trump said he would “look into” reports about Marino, putting his nomination in question.[21] On October 17, 2017, Marino withdrew his nomination.[2]
“Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.” –Miriam-Webster’s fist definition of GRACE
“Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” –Eugene O’Neil
Learning to manage pain
This is part of the story of how I am learning to manage pain. At first, I thought of this as a “war story.” After all, I am a 68 year-old paraplegic. I live in an independent residence for 100 disabled and elderly residents. It is commonplace for us to sit in the bingo parlor across from my apartment and talk about our complaints. “It hurts here. It hurts there.”
Then I sought to describe the physical therapy life has imposed on me. It was with a catalog of exercises in mind that I mistakenly began this posting in January. Yes, there are exercises here–exercises to be performed daily.
Today is March first. Yet I have not obtained mastery of movement as I continue to revise. Slowly, I am learning how gentle continual movement is key to transforming pain. I have been impatient to describe truths that seem all-encompassing. Now I realize the most difficult truth is how to narrow my focus to the achievable while recognizing there are limits to limitation.
No longer do I think of this post as a personal filing cabinet, a tool for organizing handouts from physical and occupational therapists–the consequence of physicians issuing prescriptions to conform to tedious Medicare regulations. Now I realize what I truly require:
Grace
Joy
Doing the tango from a wheelchair
Fred Astaire wearing spats dancing with Ginger Rogers who reveals a lot of leg.
Sadly, this or a similar frequently used scale for measuring pain does not solve the problem. Defining the "problem" of pain and providing a solution is the central focus of this essay. I recognize that what works for me might not work for you. I do hope that my efforts may provide comfort to my fellow chronic pain sufferers.
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In October, 2014, the pain in my deteriorating spine became crippling. Crippling it has remained. Daily the pain level is 7. 5 on a scale of one to 10. This is a frequently used scale, one with faces, shown in emergency rooms, hospitals, doctors offices. Anything over 5 is serious. If you reach 7, you are entitled to morphine–initially quick acting and wonderful. Yet 45 minutes of 4 mg is wonderful once. After the initial for 4 mg you want 6; I want 6; 8 mg 45 mg 45 minutes later. You can’t always get what you want.
Music helps
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The safer bet is Oxycodene or Percocet, another flavor of the same drug. Herein the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Oxycodone–vanilla or chocolate–is the favorite illegal drug, more popular than heroin. My friend Ben said he read in the Atlantic or Harper’s that religious fanatics who worship snakes have been too high to bother.
Dancing helps even when it seems impossible
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For me the alternative is New York City where Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center referred me to Columbia Medical Center at 168th Street for a spinal stimulator. This technology has been available since the Sixties. Soon spinal stimulator inserted with the remarkable skill of Dr. Christopher J. Winfree will be available. Soon is not now. Despite medication and steroid injections, there are days when I roll up in a ball, clutching my legs–an infant of 68 rolling on the floor in a fetal position. Yet, even then there is hope. One source is technology.
“Courage is grace under pressure,” Hemingway said famously and incorrectly.
What I am writing here has nothing to do with courage. Yes, it is difficult to write about pain without mentioning pain hurts. As with so many limitations of post-Tower-of-Babel language, the lexicon requires revision. I am not being brave. I am solving a problem. Here with discussion of pain rating charts that tell me I am experiencing “great pain,” the information has limited utility. When the nurse asks for a rating (how bad is the pain?), the answer helps her because if I say “seven” she administers medication; “two” no medication. For me the question is more complicated. What am I doing here? Isn’t my presence in an emergency room a riddle I have yet to figure out. Clearly, I require reform. Yes, I will write about the spiritual aspect of pain.
Language fails. The urgency to find relief sometimes fails because I did not understand the larger implications. Expressions such as “fighting pain” are dangerous because the key is not battle. Yes, at times like these, I regard pain as evil. Fighting evil idirectly is counterproductive.
Seven months ago the intensity of the pain was so great, I called 911, an ambulance arrived, and I was wheeled on a gurney to the Emergency Room at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
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Going to the Emergency Room for pain, even State College’s pleasant and well run ER is a mistake for a variety of reasons.
Isadora Duncan, co-founder of the modern dance movement, demonstrates her belief that human beings should move freely and without restriction (such as ballet slippers).
Most significantly an ER is a mistake because pain medication is temporary. What is required is a different mind set–a perspective to managing pain that incorporates movement, joyous continuous movement.
The spinal pain is the worst. It is a consequence of the massive radiation which cured me of Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the lymphatic system, preventing me from dying at age 30 .
To relieve spinal pain.Alicia J. Spence, physical therapist extraordinary, Phoenix Rehab recommends my ing basic stretches to relieve tight, tense shoulders due to bad posture, slouching or sitting for long periods of time.
I believe the disabled and elderly should be encouraged to develop their talents, overcome obstacles, and be productive. In the 21 years since I became a paraplegic, I have been beset by health problems. I have close to death so often Joanna, my elder daughter tells me, “Nothing can kill you, Dad.” Yet a lot can slow me down.
Sigmand Freud may not be your flavor of the month. Yet, he expressed this truth: “Love and work… work and love, that’s all there is.” Despite having survived cancer three times, I could live another thirty years, In April I will be a grandfather. In August Amelia Altalena, my younger daughter marries. There are friends and loved ones who surround me. I publish regularly. I have dreams I would like to build into communities.
The time to think of the disabled and elderly as a drain on resources is over. The Baby Boomers, smart, educated, firm believers that “if I am not for myself who is for me. Together, my landsmen and I will change our world for the better. First, however, I have to learn to manage my pain. To move continually with joy. To reform including making a healthy sleep schedule (asleep by 11 pm; greating the morning at 6 a reality and not merely a resolution. Think of me as a a guinea pig–your gunia pig.
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Hilman’s Stretches for Back Pain Relief, How to Stretch Routine, Beginners Home Yoga”
–Philo Vance, S.S. Van Dine’s eccentric detective. Scarlet Murder Case.
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Jen Hilman says about her stretches for back pain, “Incredibly relaxing and stress melting, this yoga for flexibility will be your favorite video yet. Feel some back pain relief after following along to this stretch routine.”http://www.JenHilman.com
To manage the intensity of pain so I can exercise:
I must use pain medication such as Oxycodone and steroid injections.
Each medication may have dangerous long term consequences. Instead, at the suggestion of State College pain specialist Dr. Todd B. Cousins, he suggested I can eliminate medication by going to a specialist in NYC to insert a spinal stimulator, [5]
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Dislocating my right shoulder is a story I told on WPSU radio.
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Maimonides says the highest form of charity is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient supporting himself instead of living upon others.
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Inflamed feet
When I broke my left ankle in August, my feet and legs became painfully inflamed.
To prevent an ugly condition called “pitting” Phoenix Rehab’s Alicia prescribed:
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1. Elevating my feet above my heart to reduce intimation to my lower extremities.
Example B: Motion for reducing swelling. Here, I am leaning against a large pillow on the wall adjacent to my bed. My legs are stretched across the bed so they reach the scooter. The scooter is locked so the seat will not rotate. I push the bottom of my feet against the rigid scooter chair. Focusing on reaching the pressure point, I push out hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8wEORnZxdg
Arthritis
When I went to the emergency room for spinal pain considerably higher than 8 on a scale where 10 is highest, I was x-rayed. Arthritis in the neck and shoulders.
There are useful head rotation exercises I will tell you about.
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Previously dislocated shoulder
Twenty years ago when I became unable to walk, I fell over my toes, hit the sofa and dislocated my shoulder. Several times my shoulder dislocated again not healing properly. Now stretching not only alleviates pain, stretching preserves my ability to dress myself. The following link to WPSU-FM tells the story. http://legacy.wpsu.org/radio/single_entry/LL-1756/
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Before using the pulleys, I must prepare by doing these exercises Alicia handed me. I just paused writing to clasp my arms together, slowly raise them above my head, lean back including my head_neck in the stretch, then returning to this post .
My son-in-law former Marine Jade Phillips installed this pulley which I had purchased from Phoenix Rehab.
Friend and neighbor John Harris photographs me using the pulley.
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Crawling as exercise
Crawling, photograph by Elaine Meder-Wilgus at Webster’s Bookstore and Cafe
Therapists
Allicia J. Spence, Phoenix Rehab, State College, PA
The physical and occupational therapists at HealthSouth, Pleasant Gap, PA.
Phoenix Rehab’s brilliant and elegant therapist Alicia J. Spence helps me use fore-armed crutches to walk. With the proper movement performed religiously each day (and the use of a device that directs electricity to my ankles (see footnote 12) I might be able to walk someday. First, however, I have to master the pain. Alicia suggested a wonderful exercise that slowly reduces spinal pain when I lie on m stomach.
October 27, 2015 HealthSouth Physical Rehabilitation Hospital, Pleasant Gap, PA. Occupational Therapist Megan Brown considers the problems involved with driving my mobility device into the bathroom.
Meanwhile:
Dancing helps
Isadora Duncan, co-founder [with Martha Graham] of the modern dance movement, demonstrates her belief that human beings should move freely and without restriction (such as ballet slippers.
You should see me dancing while sitting in my power operated scooter.
—30–
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Footnotes
Joy of Motion [1] is essential for managing my pain
I am writing this because I believe the disabled and elderly should be encouraged to develop their talents, overcome obstacles, and be productive.
When I was born, Hodgkin’s, a cancer of the lymphatic system, was regarded as universally fatal. The linear accelerator which cured me in 1976 is regarded today as primitive. The radiologist who treated me was killed by exposure to his own machine.
For twenty years I have been a paraplegic as a consequence of radiation burning a hole in my spinal cord. Now the radiation caused devastation to my spine has produced pain beyond description–eclipsing the other sources of pain which are part of my daily life.
A nurse took a photograph of my back immediately after surgery. So skillfully did Dr. Winfree insert the test stimulator that on December 22nd upon examining my back, Geisginger internist Sepana Menali could find no surgical scar.
References
http://www.drugs.com/oxycodone.html
McGonigal, Phd. Yoga for Pain Relief [2009]. Oakland, CA. New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Today is Sunday August 30, 2015. How it got to be 1 PM I do not know.
I do know that this ambitious posting will be under construction for a while. Consider the host of categories above which includes everything from Health Crisis to the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State to Joyof Motion.
Why I begin this full disclosure [see footnote (1)] account with a lie: “Ain’t Nobody’s Business But My Own” can and cannot be explained.
Here the overriding intent is to disclosure my plan for the future which I grandiosely refer to as “my life’s work.”
This posting is under construction. Put on your hardhat and exercise caution.
Wikipedia: Leo (F.) Reisman (October 11, 1897 – December 18, 1961) was an American violinist and bandleader in the 1920s and 1930s. Born and reared in Boston, he was of Jewish ancestry; from German immigrants who immigrated to the USA in the 19th century. Reisman studied violin as a young man, and formed his own band in 1919. He became famous for having over 80 hits on the popular charts during his career. Jerome Kern called Reisman’s orchestra “The String Quartet of Dance Bands”.
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Lyrics
Like the beat beat beat of the tom-tom
When the jungle shadows fall
Like the tick tick tock of the stately clock
As it stands against the wall
Like the drip drip drip of the raindrops
When the summer shower is through
So a voice within me keeps repeating
You, you, you
Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon or under the sun
Whether near to me, or far
It’s no matter darling where you are
I think of you
Day and night, night and day, why is it so
That this longing for you follows wherever I go
In the roaring traffic’s boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you
Day and night, night and day
Under the hide of me
There’s an oh such a hungry yearning burning inside of me
And this torment won’t be through
Until you let me spend my life making love to you
Day and night, night and day
Amazon: “In the 1950s, ninety-five percent of patients with Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of lymph tissue which afflicts young adults, died.
“Today most are cured, due mainly to the efforts of Dr. Henry Kaplan. Henry Kaplan and the Story of Hodgkin’s Disease explores the life of this multifaceted, internationally known radiation oncologist, called a ‘saint’ by some, a ‘malignant son of a bitch’ by others.
“Kaplan’s passion to cure cancer dominated his life and helped him weather the controversy that marked each of his innovations, but it extracted a high price, leaving casualties along the way. Most never knew of his family struggles, his ill-fated love affair with Stanford University, or the humanitarian efforts that imperiled him.”
[Note: I was diagnosed and treated for cancer in 1976 when I was 28 years old. This is how I described the experience when I was in the midst of my first round of radiation treatment.]
A New Lease on Life by Joel Solkoff, November 26, 1976
I am 28 years old and I have cancer. Anger comes before anything else. There are times that the anger becomes overwhelming, turns to frustrated rage, because there is no one to be angry at. I can curse God which I’ve done many times, but it is unsatisfying because God doesn’t shout back. Crying helps.
I started weeping in the hospital. An intern; frightened by the emotion, asked me to stop, She said I was upsetting the other patients. I told her to get lost, and when I was done weeping I found her and shouted at the top of my lungs, “You’re what’s wrong with doctors. You have no feelings!” It felt good to shout at someone.
My form of cancer was first described in 1832 by Dr. Thomas Hodgkin—after whom it is named—and its cause is still a mystery. It is a disease of the lymphatic system, clogging the body’s ability to purify the blood and thus to fight off infection.
The cancerous tumors, which are enlarged lymph nodes, may also take over nearby vital organs, such as the liver and lungs. Because the tumors are part of a system that circulates throughout the body, surgical removal generally does not remove the disease. A microscopic piece of tumor may remain in the body, or whatever caused the gland to grow abnormally large may already be elsewhere. Such problems made Hodgkin’s disease extremely difficult to treat and meant that, until quite recently, it was described as “universally fatal.”
In my lifetime, advances in treatment have been so successful that it appears unlikely that the disease will affect my lifespan or that I will feel its effects. Many techniques are so new that we patients haven’t lived long enough to establish whether we’ve been “cured.” The other day, as the technician adjusts my body under the linear accelerator, she said, “If I had to pick a disease to have, I’d pick yours.”
During the months of incapacitation, Ihave slowly begun to appreciate that I am fortunate to be living in these times. The process began when a lump under arm right arm did not go away. The lump did not hurt; it wasn’t even uncomfortable, but seeing a doctor seemed sensible. My appointment was on a Friday afternoon, and when the internist grabbed the phone, told me to run three blocks to the nearby surgeon, and then reassured me “not to worry,” I was frightened. Removing the lump, under a local anesthetic, hurt less than I had feared. After an assortment of pathologists had looked at sections of the lump under a microscope and after one misdiagnosis (Hodgkin’s disease is a difficult cancer to identify), my internist’s suspicions were confirmed.
Then came tests. To treat the disease it was first necessary to know where it was located. I was injected with isotopes So that my liver would show up on a television screen. Marrowwas taken from the hip bone. There were blood tests and X-rays. My feet were slit open so an opaque fluid could run through the lymphatic system.
Finally, there was abdominal surgery. Its purpose was exploratory, but the pain afterwards was overwhelming. Screaming for more relief than the drugs could give, I was oblivious to the long-term beneficial result. I had always thought that pain was either avoidable or imaginary.
As soon as I recovered from surgery, the internist prescribed the treatment–radiation. The radiology lab is in a basement, and most of us walk in off the street as outpatients. When patients come in for the first time, their names are placed on a blackboard, with the name of the disease and of the doctor. Etiquette forbids the placing of numbered odds, but most patients do not share my apparent good fortune.
I go into the room where X-rays are sent through my body every day for 12 weeks. The process takes a few minutes and is painless. The rays kill all cells the area at which the machine is focused. Because cancer cells multiply more rapidly than normal cells, the rays do more lasting damage to the cancer cells. However, since cells are killed indiscriminately, treatments make me feel weak and weepy.
I have trouble swallowing. The hair on the back of my neck has fallen out –temporarily. I have severe skin burn. My stomach feels queasy and I spend a lot of energy fighting the urge to vomit. Slowly, I have come to understand that life has been given to me for a second time.
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Joel Solkoff is author of “The Politics of Food.”
Complete Lyrics
He said I was in my early 40’s,
With a lot of life before me,
And a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
I spent most of the next days, lookin’ at the x-rays,
Talkin’ ’bout the options and talkin’ ’bout sweet time.
Asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end.
How’s it hit ya, when you get that kind of news.
Man what ya do.
And he says,
[Chorus]I went sky divin’,
I went rocky mountain climbin’,
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name Fumanchu.
And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I’ve been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you weredyin’.He said I was finally the husband,
That most the time I wasn’t.
And I became a friend a friend would like to have.
And all the sudden goin’ fishing,
Wasn’t such an imposition.
And I went three times that year I lost my dad.
Well I finally read the good book,
And I took a good long hard look at what I’d do
If I could do it all again.
And then.[Chorus]Like tomorrow was a gift and you’ve got eternity
To think about what you do with it,
What could you do with it, what can
I dowith with it, what would I do with it.[Chorus]
Sky divin’,
I went rocky mountain climbin’,
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name Fumanchu.
And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I watched an eagle as it was flyin’.
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you weredyin’.To live like you were dyin’.
To live like you were dyin’.
To live like you were dyin’.
To live like you were dyin’.
Joel’s commentary: Last night, I had coffee with John Harris my neighbor and friend. John suggested if I want to learn Spanish, I sing Spanish songs. Promptly, a YouTube search of Spanish songs brought me to Enrique Iglesias.
Enrique Iglesias has a substantial portion of real estate on YouTube. His cross over into English dominates the site. Vevo videos, always a sign of quality, have sensuous videos with women so beautiful it can break your heart. But the songs are in English.
The Spanish songs are organized willy-nilly. Iglesias’ voice, always engaging, appears behind a static background. You don’t go to YouTube to see a photo. You go to YouTube for video and great video. Finally, I found: ENRIQUE IGLESIAS EN EL ESTADIO OLIMPICO. VERANO PRESIDENTE. 2 DE SEPTIEMBRE 2011. MASVIP.COM.DO.
Naturally, I provide basic flight information showing a Google Map of a flight from Miami to the Dominican Republic were you to go back in time and attend the concert.
The video is astonishing, an adjective I seldom use because it is hard to know what astonishing means. The video begins with a sweaty t-shirt and jean clad Iglesias going into the audience and hugging several luscious young women. This goes on for some time amid the sound of female fans howling with delight, reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s iconic appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Great fun.
Iglesias plucks Rena out of the crowd. She is wearing a black tank top and white shorts. Rena cannot contain her delight as she and Iglesias go on stage. He briefly interviews her, asks her what song she wants him to sing, sings it while she mouths the words. Iglesias is engaging, charismatic, just plain wonderful with her.
He sings, passes the microphone to her but she refuses to sing several times until finally…. During the performance she is constantly taking photographs of Iglesias, showing them to him which he looks at in appreciation, and then he takes photos of the two of them together.
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As to why I am trying to learn Spanish, there are two reasons which I will elaborate in eccentrically multiple items:
My daughter Amelia who has been living in Pontevedra, Spain is planning to visit me in State College PA to celebrate the arrival of 2015 and take part in my community’s First Night Celebration. This is a link to last year’s celebration. Amelia will be arriving with her friend Javier who is a sergeant in the Spanish Army.
During Amelia’s multi-month sojourn to the U.S. last year, she also took a course in medical Spanish at her alma mater [ which means “nourishing mother”] UNC Ashville and took care of me before, during, and after my major and successful kidney cancer surgery in NYC, rooming with me at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge.
[Note: Commentary to be resumed after I go out and purchase coffee. All out. An apartment without coffee is a terrible place.]
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Back from scooting to the store, going in the opposite direction of crowds of eager football fans en route to Penn State’s Homecoming game. We start again with my two reasons for learning Spanish with another lengthy list:
Beginning with muñeca cruel video, Spanish lyrics, English lyrics, and Iglesias’ official site:
muñeca cruel
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Spanish lyrics:
Un dia mas y tu no estas aqui
No me concentro tan solopienso enti Dicen que basta
Que es hora de vivir
y es imposible
Ves lo quequeda de mi Aqui esta mi cuerpo
Para que hagas lo que quieras de el Aqui esta mi alma
Para quesigasensanandote Aqui esta mi nombre
Para quepongas a sulado unacruz Aqui esta el final
De mis suenos escrito en tu papel
Muneca Cruel Aqui esta mi sangre
Que aun se altera cuando
mehablen detiAqui esta por fin mi futuro
Y tu no estas en el
Muneca CruelVuelve a llover
Todo me sienta mal
Salgo a buscarte
No se como empezarHago que duermo
Porque no quiero hablar
Mira mi vida
Es un desastre totalAqui esta mi cuerpo
Para que hagas lo que
quieras de elAqui esta mi alma
Para que sigas ensanandoteAqui esta mi nombre
Para que pongas a su lado una cruzAqui esta el final
De mis suenos escrito en tu papel
Muneca CruelAqui esta mi sangre
Que aun se altera cuando
me hablen de tiAqui esta por fin mi futuro
Y tu no estas en el
Muneca Cruel
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English lyrics:
Cruel Doll
Another day and you’re not here
I can’t concentrate I only think of you
They say that’s enough
That’s its time to live
And it’s impossible
Do you see what you left of me?
Here is my body
For you to do with what you want with it
Here is my soul
For it continues to follow you
Here is my name
So you can put a cross beside it
Here is the end of my dreams
Written on your paper
Cruel Doll
Here is my blood
Though it jumps when they
speak of you
Here at last is my future
And you’re not in it
Cruel Doll
The rain comes again
Everything feels bad
I go to find you
I don’t know how to begin
I sleep
because I don’t want to speak
Look at my life
it’s a total disaster
Here is my body
For you to do with what
you want with it
Here is my soul
For it continues to follow you
Here is my name
So you can put a cross beside it
Here is the end of my dreams
Written on your paper
Cruel Doll
Here is my blood
Though it jump when they
speak of you
Here at last is my future
And you’re not in it
Cruel Doll
Iglesias started his career in the mid-1990s on an American Spanish Language record label Fonovisa which helped turn him into one of the biggest stars in Latin America and the Hispanic Market in the United States becoming the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade.
By the turn of the millennium he made a successful crossover into the mainstream market and signed a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US $68,000,000 with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums.
In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic Records.
In late 2012, Republic Records was revived after eleven years of being dormant, shuttering Universal Republic Records and taking all the artists from that label to Republic Records, including Iglesias.
In 2001, he released his single Hero, which he later performed to commemorate the victims of the 9/11attacks.
Iglesias has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time.
He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 25 number-one Spanish-language singles on theBillboard‘s Hot Latin Tracks.
He has also had 13 number-one songs on Billboard’s Dance charts, more than any other single male artist.
Altogether, Iglesias has amassed more than 70 number-one rankings on the various Billboardcharts. Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop andThe King of Dance.
“Hero” is a single released by Enrique Iglesias from his second English albumEscape and was written by Iglesias, Paul Barry and Mark Taylor. Iglesias first released the song to radio in early September 2001 to a positive critical and commercial reception.
After theSeptember 11 attacks on theWorld Trade Center, the song was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero and politicians commenting on the attacks. He was asked to sing the song live at the benefit concertAmerica: A Tribute to Heroes ten days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Iglesias broadcast his performance from a warehouse in New York alongside Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Sheryl Crow. The location of the warehouse was kept secret in case of further attacks. It was Iglesias’ first televised performance of the song.
America: A Tribute to Heroes was a benefit concert created by the heads of the four major American broadcast networks; Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.
Joel Gallen was selected by them to produce and run the show.
Actor George Clooney organized celebrities to perform and to man the telephone bank.
The marketing and public relations was headed by Warner Bros. EVP Corp Comm with assistance from the marketing and publicity departments of all four broadcast networks. It was broadcast live by the four major American television networks and all of the cable networks in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.
Done in the style of a telethon, it featured a number of national and international entertainers performing to raise money for the victims and their families, particularly but not limited to the New York City firefighters and New York City police officers. It aired September 21, 2001, uninterrupted and commercial-free. It was released on December 4, 2001 on compact disc and DVD.
On a dark stage illuminated by hundreds of candles, twenty-one artists performed songs of mourning and hope, while various actors and other celebrities delivered short spoken messages.
Some of the musicians including Neil Young and Eddie Vedder were heard working the phone banks taking pledges. The money raised amounted to over $200 million, and was given to the United Way‘s September 11 Telethon Fund.
Lucas Cranach (1509-1533) painted this one of his many versions of Adam and Eve.
1. At sunset, tonight [September 24, 2014 on the solar calendar] the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah began.
2. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the new year 5775.
3. According to Wikipedia tonight “is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of humanity’s role in God‘s world.”
Lucas Cranach (1509-1533) painted this one of his many versions of Adam and Eve.
3. Here is The Jewish Publication Society’s translation from the book of Genesis. “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They [sic] shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth. And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female. He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, ‘Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.'” The creation of Adam and Eve took place on Friday, the sixth day of creation.
4. “Chabad, also known as Habad, Lubavitch, and Chabad-Lubavitch, is an Orthodox Jewish, Hasidic movement,” explains Wikipedia. According to Chabad, whose Orthodox movement inspired the first eight years of my elementary school education: “Rosh Hashanah…emphasizes the special relationship between G‑d and humanity: our dependence upon G‑d as our creator and sustainer, and G‑d’s dependence upon us as the ones who make His presence known and felt in His world. Each year on Rosh Hashanah, ‘all inhabitants of the world pass before G‑d like a flock of sheep,’ and it is decreed in the heavenly court ‘who shall live, and who shall die . . . who shall be impoverished, and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise.’ But this is also the day we proclaim G‑d King of the Universe. The Kabbalists teach that the continued existence of the universe is dependent upon the renewal of the divine desire for a world when we accept G‑d’s kingship each year on Rosh Hashanah.”
5. A note on the spelling of God’s name. When I was a student at the Hebrew Academy of Greater Miami, (when founding Rabbi Alexander S. Gross was principal), I wrote God’s name thusly, “G-d.” To be more precise, I followed standard practice of altering the spelling of God’s name in Hebrew. The teaching was in keeping with the Commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain. One did not say the name correctly or spell it out in English or Hebrew.
6. Subsequently, I became a member of Conservative and Reform synagogues where observance is not taken as literally as my elementary schooling.
Rabbi David Ostrich
7. I am currently a member of State College PA’s Brit Shalom, a congregation that combines Conservative and Reform practice. My rabbi is David Ostrich, a wonderful man.
8. Rabbi Ostrich has just written a special prayer-book for Rosh Hashanah and the High Holidays. It is called the machzor.
9. Wikipedia: “The mahzor…is the prayer book used by Jews on the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur….The prayer-book is a specialized form of the siddur, which is generally intended for use in weekday and Shabbat services.The word mahzor means ‘cycle’ (the root … means ‘to return’). It is applied to the festival prayer book because the festivals recur annually.”
10. Brit Shalom exclusive: Rabbi Ostrich’s mahzor has just been published this Rosh Hashana.
11. Here is a section Rabbi Ostrich emailed me yesterday from the mahzor:
12. QUESTIONS AND MYSTERIES WITH WHICH WE STRUGGLE
“As much as we are masters of our own fates—making decisions and living with the consequences, there are also times when greater powers toss us around like small boats on a stormy sea.
“Whether the “storm” is caused deliberately by God—as a punishment or a test—or by the vagaries of the natural world, we find ourselves victims or objects of the slings and arrows of fortune. Are events pre-determined, or do we have free will?
“This ominous prayer, Un’taneh Tokef, has for some 1500 years represented our people’s grappling with this question.
“We know that many of our decisions make a difference, but we also know that greater powers impact our lives in significant ways.
“We pray that the greatest of powers eases our way and makes our challenges manageable, and we pray that the decisions we make will be good ones.”
A live recording from the Vocalise Festival on November 23, 2010 in Potsdam, Germany.
Cantor Azi Schwartz and the RIAS Kammerchor, conducted by Ud Joffe. This setting of Un’tane Tokef (from the High Holy Days liturgy) by Raymond Goldstein.
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I Joel wish you my readers a sweet and happy New Year. May you be recorded in the Book of Life.
Example B: Motion for reducing swelling. Here, I am leaning against a large pillow on the wall adjacent to my bed. My legs are stretched across the bed so they reach the scooter. The scooter is locked so the seat will not rotate. I push the bottom of my feet against the rigid scooter chair. Focusing on reaching the pressure point, I push out hard.
