Only My List Counts

There is something called The List Of All The Music That Is Great And Good that I am personally responsible for maintaining, since I am its creator and curator and the only one who gets to look at it. Every once in a while I give people a peek at a small part of it but never the whole thing, because most mere mortals … well …

So when I say that you should listen to some music, you should listen. If you do, I suggest that you will find no group of people who exemplify what happens when you throw egos out the window and become servants of the music than the Tedeschi-Trucks Band. You won’t find a track or a video of theirs that isn’t looking for the soul of what is being played.

Here is a live video of these fine musicians playing Midnight in Harlem. If you watch it … this is church, people, so put away your godforsaken phones and be respectful.

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We’re going through the inordinate number of days that are required when anyone who is very very wealthy goes to trial. This is because a highly-paid lawyer’s skillset consists largely of knowing how to drag a proceeding on until everyone involved is exhausted and doesn’t give a blue fig about what is true or not but simply wants to get it over with and get on with their lives.

If the judicial proceedings of the French Revolution had been conducted in a similar fashion the first potential victims for Monsieur Guillotine’s instrument would still be waiting in gaol.

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Pediatricians, as I’m sure you are all aware, are generally mild-mannered and extremely virtuous people.* As the lowest paid medical specialty, they can only sparingly afford to travel and this limits their ability to get into nearly as much mischief around the globe. So when a pediatric leader makes the news it is an unusual event.

David Brooks got off yet another good op-Ed piece in Friday’s NYTimes as he looked admiringly at the work of a British pediatrician who has added an ingredient to the steaming stew that is the debate about how best to help kids who question their sexual assignment. The missing ingredient is sanity. The title of the piece is The Courage To Follow The Evidence In Transgender Care.

Let me say a couple of things about this noisy national and international debate:

• In general, humans are not to be trusted when it comes to areas of sexuality. Our track record is atrocious and shows few signs of improving
• If the general run of humans is suspect on this subject, when politicians and lawyers get into the act the milieu becomes even more strained and difficult. Some things do not lend themselves to legislation, which is a clumsy process at best (see Tucker’s quotation below)
• Being a physician does not guarantee that your opinion on all things is automatically to be taken as correct. One needs a good memory to become a doctor, but an M.D. degree is no guarantee against stupidity, which is a characteristic that is very democratically distributed in the general population
• Making good medical decisions in cloudy areas involving sexuality needs clear heads, open minds, and the willingness to move deliberately rather than precipitously. This approach guarantees that you will come under fire from those who want the answer NOW even if one has to make make that decision based on insufficient data.

*Full disclosure. I am a retired pediatrician, and as such my opinions are above reproach and invariably sensible

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No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

Gideon J. Tucker

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It is 1976 miles from Paradise to New York City. I looked it up after reading rave reviews of two musicals* opening on Broadway, and wondering if driving there on a long weekend were possible. Eventually I decided that even in a car as reliable as a Subaru Outback the logistics were against me.

Of course, even if the trip were feasible, there would be the searingly high ticket prices to contend with. In the old days, such a purchase could have been funded by selling one of the children into bondage, but now said offspring are all middle-aged and I have no idea what their market value might be. (There would be the additional factor of their resistance to such a maneuver.)

So instead of packing a bag I simply wailed and gnashed my teeth for a bit before settling down once again to ruefully accept that to live in such a spectacular spot meant giving up a few things. Regular attendance at Broadway shows were one of them.

*The musicals are Gun and Powder and Stereophonic.

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Brothers and sisters, we conclude our services this morning with a rendition of Neil Young’s soulful song Helpless. When the members of the Music Committee are finished, please file quietly out the side doors and don’t forget to leave something in the collection boxes as you pass. Pick up those pledge cards, too, if you will. Spirituality is a wonderful thing, but someone has to pay to keep the lights on.

Amen, y’all.

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