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.
-
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…
-
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…
-
Criticized by a kamikaze pilot
On his home turf, Otosan was the King. He seemed to enjoy bossing people and rebutting any opinion. At least once he had Elly in tears. Brad could not understand a word of the man’s fierce Japanese and would ask Elly to break it down. Then he tried to win the old man over. It was a mistake. Brad told Otosan, through Elly’s translation, about his childhood and how he had tried to help his family. He told about his father’s alcoholism, their poverty, and about how at the age of 16 he had left his family to go and work his way through school and become a successful doctor.…
-
East Meets West: Brad and Elly get married
Elly’s parents and older brother arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Okayama, Japan to their daughter and sister get married. On their wedding day, Brad went up to their room at a nearby Marriott, and Elly introduced them as Otosan and Okasan, which meant Father and Mother. They bowed politely and spoke in Japanese which Elly translated. Okasan was bent over, leaned on a cane with one arm, and gave Brad a kind smile. Otosan stood rigidly, eyes like coals burning through thick black framed glasses, supporting his wife by her other arm. They were slightly shorter than Elly’s 5’ 3” and almost as petite. The brother shook Brad’s…
-
The spiritual marriage that failed
Shaken by the death threat at work, Brad’s spiritual experience from the trip to India faded. The longing to find his soulmate returned, and he met a series of ladies through Match.com. The final one was a flashy, intelligent Russian named Natasha, who wore movie-star makeup and had ruler-straight, pressed blonde hair. He should have known better. Natasha was a proxy for her friend, Irenka, who refused to meet a man on a regular date. The shy lady was convinced that Mr. Right was going to swoop out of heaven and pick her off of her feet. Natasha enjoyed the elegant dinner that Brad paid for, going on about Irenka…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…