Recovery has many paths

© harrington

I want to particularly thank the good folks at Subtext for their well wishes:

"Our best wishes go out to John Harrington who was the inspiration to our '25 Best Books to read to understand Minnesota' list. He had a bad week health wise and we hope he is feeling better. Was it all that thinking about the list, John?"

For the record, I am feeling better. Thanks. I didn't yet break my brain working on the list, although that's still well within the realm of possibility if I treat it like a brick wall to bang my head against. Instead, I'm trying to follow Tom Sawyer's example with the fence to be white washed  and get better read Minnesotans than I to supply authors and titles. All in all though, I'm reminded of the story about Lincoln (or Roosevelt?) to the effect that he could deliver a 2 hour speech with about 20 minutes notice but, if the requester wanted a 20 minute speech, he would need two weeks notice. Both the recovery and the list are taking longer and are more work than anticipated. Both are also wonderful learning experiences. I'll add titles I've missed that others have suggested, make sure there aren't duplicate listings and provide a complete update on this blog tomorrow. Today, in addition to thanking the folks at and through Subtext who've wished me well in my recovery and helped with our list, I want to rant a little at the folks at University of Minnesota Medical Center. Not at the wonderful teams who deliver care, but the folks who design and redesign the facilities in which great health care is delivered. This may, or may not, be the first time they've had as a patient someone a little bit familiar with biophilia and sustainable building. But, as more of us Minnesotans take an interest in sustainable living, there will be more patients who notice the lack of views of nature and the natural features missing at least in those areas of the center to which I was exposed. I wish the University the best in it's efforts to become a top ten world class research university. I hope their medical department will start to engage facilities designers able to create the kind of designs that can bring about the improved recovery results more and more research studies are showing. Now that I'm home, I can enjoy the kind of views [taken this morning] shown at the top of this page (the fawn is barely visible to the left of the doe). I know these scenes help my recovery and also help me feel better during the down times of my recovery. Minneapolis isn't devoid of beautiful views of nature. I'm sure someone creative could help the U figure out how to bring the views that already exist to the patients who will come there for the best, most advanced, most holistic treatment. Thanks for listening. Come again when you can. Rants, raves and reflections served here daily.