Marlow's Musings 4/14/24

Insights, adventures and fun stuff from this week.

Audio narration by David Marlow

Postcard of Union Hospital Terre Haute, Indiana, circa 1960

We all have those moments when boldness is called for. One of my earliest came when I was only 6 years old. Not a ‘save the world’ kind of bravery though it involved Batman. More a stretch beyond your limits boldness.

Like many six-year-olds in the 1960’s, after a series of bouts with strep throat, I had my tonsils removed. I’m not sure kids even have that done anymore though it was practically a right of passage back in the day.

This was also the era before private rooms. I was in an open ward with other kids on the fifth floor of Union Hospital. My bed was in the corner (see the picture above) and had a view of downtown at night.

Every kid in the hospital at the time was on that ward regardless of why they were there. A little boy next to me had been burned, bandaged on his arms and mid-chest down the rest of his body.

It was awful when they changed the bandages. Even with the curtain drawn, I could hear his cries. When they weren’t changing his bandages, he was in surprisingly good spirits.

My discomfort was mild in comparison, and as promised, I got to eat ice cream to soothe my sore throat.

When evening came the nurse turned on the one television on the ward. I forget the show she turned it to, but it wasn’t Batman.

It was Thursday. Batman was broadcast on Wednesday and Thursday nights. On the Wednesday episode, the villain was introduced, Batman would try to apprehend him and invariably be trapped by said villain.

In a bit of theatrics, the villain would attempt to eliminate Batman and sometimes Robin by using a dramatic device like tying them up and slowly lowering them into a vat of boiling oil or some similar device of demise.

The Wednesday episode would end with them in peril, their fate to be revealed on Thursday.

The announcer would declare…"Tune in tomorrow – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!"

I loved Batman. I even wore one of those suffocating plastic masks on Halloween. Batman was about to be dropped in a vat of boiling oil, and I HAD to see how he escaped.

My memory isn’t clear on the exact number though there had to be 50 kids in that ward. Painfully shy, I could barely speak to an adult, let alone an adult, and a room full of kids I didn’t know.

There was also the matter of speaking, having had half my throat surgically removed that morning. Maybe half my throat is an exaggeration though it felt like it.

Still, somehow I called out to the nurse and explained the importance of Thursday night and Batman being in peril.

With one of the kindest voices I have ever heard before or since, she let the other kids know what I had asked and wondered if they would mind watching Batman tonight.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only Batman fan in the Children’s Ward that Thursday evening.

Lest you doubt it, Batman escaped, and the villain ended up in Gotham Prison, where he belonged. I fell asleep not long after, quite satisfied with myself for having asked an adult for something I needed.

I woke up in the middle of the night, the city lights visible in the distance. As my eyes cleared, I could see something else: my dad was asleep next to my bed curled up on four hard wooden chairs.

My parents had divorced two years before, and my mom moved us out of state. I had not seen my father in quite a while. He had driven to the hospital after finishing work, arriving when I was already asleep.

In the morning, he was gone. Back then, he worked rotating shifts and needed to drive an hour to his job, so he had left before I woke up.

Even though he knew he wouldn’t get a chance to talk to me, he stayed that night in the hospital. That evening, I saw two superheroes.

Word of the Week

Circa (adv)

(sur•kuh)

1. about, at, or near a given date

2. on or around

From Latin, circa is used when the exact time is unknown.

In case you missed it…

This week’s Ikigai Thought for Today was a Kindness Meditation

The idea of a Kindness Meditation is to speak thoughts and expressions of kindness to yourself, to those around you, and to the world.

It's this very simple process, and something that can be done in minutes. The first one is…

Ikigai Thought for Today: Kindness Meditation

Ikiquest+

This week's Coffee Contemplation is about embracing your Ikigai era—10,000 days.

If you take a typical lifespan, you get about 30,000 days of adult life, give or take. If you break it up, the first 10,000 ends as you move toward 30, the second, middle to late 50s. And those in their 50s are embarking on what will likely be their third and final segment of 10,000.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour. Whatever he does, whomever he is.

C. S. Lewis.

As Lewis reminds us, no one gets any special privilege regarding the future. We're all getting there at the same time.

Ikiquest+ subscribers can listen to it in audio narration or read the transcription.

Coffee Contemplation: Embracing your Ikigai Era

If you aren’t yet an Ikiquest+ Subscriber, give it a try for free by clicking the box here.

Comment of the Week:

The comment of the week is from Lisa on last week’s Musing on the rainbow above the marsh that had become such a common sight that I quit seeing it.

“Sometimes it takes a rainbow, or some other special phenomenon to make us take notice of what we have right in front of us, David. Thanks for the reminder.”

We all need those reminders.

Marlow's Musings 4/7/24

Quote I’m Pondering

This thought is from Mary Jaksch…

“Follow your dreams – even if it’s only for ten minutes a day.”

Interesting Thing I Saw This Week

I have a world of challenges with tables and columns in Word documents. When I created the Ikiverse class, I got all of the verbs and values in nice neat columns and then saved it as a PDF. Unfortunately NOW i can’t find the original word document to update it. Arrrg!

Thankfully I found I❤️PDF, the ultimate free PDF conversion tool. You can convert almost any PDF to another document form.

It’s easy to use, and now I have my verb and values lists in an editable form again. What might I be up to with that? Hmmm. 🤔

Final Thoughts

This week, much of the US experienced a Solar Eclipse. The next total solar eclipse in a populated area will be in July 2025 and pass over Sydney, Australia.

The line of totality for this past week's eclipse crossed over the town where I grew up. Friends and family experienced the mid-day darkness of a total eclipse. I had thought about driving down, but then a number of things came up, and we decided not to make the trip.

Perhaps a trip to Australia is in order. It would be quite the adventure. Though, it forces me to ponder why I passed on the easier and more available opportunity.

Quest well.