human psychology
People are endlessly complex and challenging to figure out. Every human is different and responds to outer stimuli and inner desires in different and often unpredictable ways.
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The final days of the Rosedales
Moving beyond his robotic behavior, Brad meets the final challenge of fully accepting his humanity. He decides that because he has reached a contented state the mission has been accomplished. He believes from his studies that he could pass on to a higher plane of existence, one with more evolved spiritual evolution. A terrible tragedy takes place – Elly dies in a plane crash returning from Japan. Brad is lost, but makes a final effort to spend his remaining years in service to the good of others. He donates the Elly’s life insurance check to a charity for poor children, and takes a volunteer job doing medical exams in homeless…
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The man who’s wife called him a robot
Elly watched Brad head for his upstairs office for the second time one Saturday. First after breakfast, now after lunch. “You’re a robot,” she called out, as she cleared the dishes from their lovely lunch of whole-grain pasta stewed with fresh-cut vegetables and a side of steamed brown rice. She worked hard to keep him healthy, and she deserved a little attention. Not today. Butt back in his chair, he refreshed the computer screen and continued entering data for the third medical report of the day. Pushing sixty, preparing for retirement, he thought of Mo dying alone in his beat-up trailer, or Natalie waiting for the next government so she…
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Finding what is missing – the search for Enlightenment
A gift came after Dr. Sherman helped heal Brad’s traumatized inner child. Gone was the fear of failure that drove him out of bed every morning to work until he would drop late at night. The need to find and conquer an endless series of challenges, a need that had constantly goaded his mind and body, was gone too. It amazed him that he could sit and do nothing, and not feel guilty or worthless. Going to work and taking care of people with aches and pains became a welcomed routine, and getting STAT trauma calls nights and weekends was not missed at all. It didn’t take long for a…
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adverse childhood experience, business corruption, doctor work, human psychology, personal development
After healing the inner child, something is missing
Dr. Sherman peered across his big oak desk at Brad, and then at Hannah. A wizened old man in thick spectacles, he had seen every misfortune that could fall on a human life, and the consequences. After a thorough evaluation backed by 40 years of psychiatric practice, he had only three words. “Go to sleep,” said Dr. Sherman. His tone was gentle but firm. “Go to sleep? What the hell does that mean?” says Hannah. “I brought you this poor doctor who has been bamboozled and cheated by everybody and their damn mother, and all you can say is go to sleep?” Her sharp voice cracked like a whip, causing…
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The nurse who tried to heal a doctor
Hannah was an impetuous surgical nurse with violet eyes and thick black hair, who could pass as a 35 year-old Elizabeth Taylor. Brad had met her the previous year when she assisted him on one of his surgeries. She was so good that he always requested her as his assistant. He would never know that she always requested to work with him, too. They had gotten along so well that he had shared his misfortunes about Dr. Black ,and even his bankruptcy. “How are things at the office these days, doc?” Hannah said. She loaded a suture and handed him the instrument so he could begin closing the skin after…
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Predators in private practice
Five years at Cook County Hospital transformed Dr. Brad Rosedale into an experienced trauma surgeon who wouldn’t flinch at the sight of the worst carnage. No matter how much blood, how many broken bones, or how bad was the mangled extremity, each body part was a challenge that he could fix and usually restore to proper function. The Uzi machine gun victims, suicide jumpers, and nerve and artery repairs from sword slashes, no longer made him anxious, wondering “how the hell are we going to fix this.” Now, it was just another day or night on the job. Chicago was a glittering city of polar opposites, an incongruous melting pot…
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You want to be a doctor? Hahaha
“You don’t really mean that. You don’t really want to be a doctor.” Natalie looked at him with one eye closed and blew a cloud of smoke at him. She knew he hated that. Then, she laughed. “I mean it, Mom. I made straight As my first year of college, and my undergraduate advisor suggested it. She got me thinking – what better way is there to help people and also be successful? Even help our family.” Brad ignored the foul odor of the cheap cigarettes. Talking about helping the family however, that rang hollow in his ears. But, he had to give her a little credit. She wasn’t a…
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The chess player with a broken wrist
Brad walked into gymnastics practice with a long arm plaster cast, suited up and ready to work out with two legs and one good arm. Coach Peters spotted him, and his face immediately flushed bright red. “Brad? Oh m-my g-god! What’d the doctor say?” Mr. Peters was mostly concerned about covering his own butt. He had pushed Brad to work out on the painful wrist for weeks, taping it for support so tightly that his hand would turn blue. Its only a sprain, he would say. “The doctor said I have a scaphoid fracture and I have to wear this for 6 months!” said Brad. Coach’s eyes were darting back…
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A newspaper boy tries to help his family
A man driving slowly down the street in an old but shiny Cadillac called out to Bradley. “Hey, young man, would you like to make some money on a paper route?” “Yeah, when can I start?” said Bradley. He skidded his bike to a stop as the big car pulled towards the curb. The rule to stay away from strangers was forgotten the moment money was promised. “How old are you?” said the man, who introduced himself with a long name that sounded like Constantinople without the C. “But everyone calls me Mr. O.” He smiled and winked, which made Bradley notice the deep wrinkles in his face. He was…
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adverse childhood experience, astronaut, human psychology, maternal introject, personal development, UFOlogy
The boy who wanted to be an astronaut
Despite Natalie’s habits of drinking, smoking, and popping pills when they were available, Natalie had brains. She also had a passion for astrology, and had taught herself how to chart people’s destinies from data she would get from magazines. “Your moon is in Scorpio, and your ascendant is in Virgo,” she would say, and go on to make a prediction that occasionally came true. People would say it’s bull, or get excited, or be afraid. She liked them to react, which in turn got her obsessed. Sometimes she would stay up half the night to finish someone’s horoscope. “It’s retrograde Mercury, be careful, nothing’s going to go right for a…