Gazette - 1981

Friends,

Seasons Greetings. I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirit, if not then I hope that it brings some of the same. I’ve never written a generic letter before but it seems a propitious means of communication. Though I can think of reasons not to mass produce a letter, I merely had to look at the exponential growth of my friends and at one half hour per letter (a very conservative estimate) I would have them finished sometime next June. In addition I suppose some of this information may be irrelevant to our relationship; please ignore and read on. Apologies aside...

I’m in my first year of medical school. I’ve spent my life getting here (and immensly enjoying the getting) but now that I’m here I’m in love with it. “Here” is Hershey Medical School in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The medical complex consists of a hospital, a research section and a medical school; all of this is the middle of a cornfield. I spend the majority of my time in the classrooms but occasionally find time to wander around the hospital, imagining what it is like to be the doctor in the white coat or to peep into a research lab and watch men (and women) tinker with elaborate computers and other gadgets. In fact in the lab where I will be doing some research on pulmonary (lung) function and Cardiac (heart) output, others are working on several artificial hearts. Technology today, life for tomorrow?

My coursework this first year consists of subjects like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and genetics. In addition to these scientific courses I have a few subjects which deal with my bedside manner and the way I deal with patients. These are some of my favorite courses as they occasionally include a trip over to the hospital to visit with real patients. Dealing with a real patient is certainly much more interesting than with an isolated kidney sitting on a table. As something extra I suited up for surgery one morning and observed an open heart surgery. Quite exciting! They do not have operating theatres here or windows from which to observe. Instead, I went into surgery and stood at the head of the table next to the anesthesiologist and watched the surgery happen about 12 inches away. The most amazing part ofthe operation was to watch the heart stop and the machine take over, then one to two hours later watch the heart start up again. In the process I was literally able to see inside that man’s heart.

I find being in medical school to be a busy life. I go to class at 8 am, unless, like today, I oversleep, and finish sometime in the early afternoon. I study until supper, then take a good long break. I am absolutely enamoured with cooking and turn out dishes from Spiced Persian Fesenjon to Hershey Cream Pie (a minor variant of Boston Cream Pie). Once in a while I turn out some not so edible dishes, even so, it’s fun trying. My roommate is an equally creative cook and with two people it rarely gets boring. Every so often we have guests and spend half a day preparing a feast. In essence we have thanksgiving at least once a month. After dinner, desert,tea and three albums I’m just about ready to study again until 11 pm. It is a busy lifestyle but one which is very rewarding.

Incidently my roomate’s name is Dan Wolf. He grew up in York Springs (about an hour north of my home) on an orchard. There was no choice involved in the selection of roommates and we had never known each other before. However, the computer did an excellent job on the match. Besides both of us liking cooking we of course like medicine, as well as reading, philosophy, sports, and working outdoors. We spent a number of weekends this autumn picking apples on his farm. This autumn was perfect picking weather every weekend, clear crisp days after a morning frost. Working outside was enough to revive us from the study trance we had been in during the week and Monday mornings were much brighter. The weekends which were not spent working I took time out to go for a walk in the nearby mountains.

To back up in time a bit, I graduated from Penn State in February with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. I had already been accepted to medical school the previous November so everthing was go for this September. I spent the summer both in leisure and at work. I planted over 100 acres of corn this spring and then went to work building a house with my father. The work involved mostly carpentry. I have worked on the house for the past several years and it is finally starting to take shape. Work sped up later in the summer and the house should be complete sometime in 1982. My leisure for the summer consisted mostly of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay in a 15 foot daysailer. I ran into many interesting people particularily on the Eastern Shore. I have a tarp which I can stretch over the boom so I spent the nights on the boat under the tarp or under the stars.

Spending alot of time outdoors both at leisure and at work really brought me into close contact with nature. There’s probably no better way to appreciate the power of nature than to be in a 15 foot sailboat during a summer storm. “Lord, how big thy ocean and how small am I.” There’s much fascination for me in the rhythmical, regenerative patterns of nature. I planted over 20 million seeds of corn of 100+acres and every day I looked at the fields and every day I saw growth. I also worked for neighbors picking fruit. I never before realized how rapidly fruit blossoms, grows and ripens. It seems that each and every day a different fruit reaches its ripeness. On walks over the surrounding farmland and nearby state park I discovered many fantastic berries growing wild and free for the picking. They were especially good in midmorning when the sun became warm while the berries in the shade wre still frosty coool and would melt in my mouth. Later in the summer I discovered the vegetable garden. Not my own, but others. I find gardeners to be some of the greatest people on the earth. (It must be due to their exposure to the outdoors.) A particular instance comes to mind during a bicycle trip through the Adirondacks in upper New York State. After a week of cycling with friends through mountains and living on mostly dried foods, we left the mountains and one evening while looking for a place to stay came upon a wonderful Mr. and Mrs. Chaplin. Not only did they let us pitch our tent in their pasture but they took us on a tour through their garden and proceeded to pick the most succulent vegetables I’ve ever eaten. Those vegetables which survived (they were just as good raw) until we got water boiling were thrown in a pot and became a wonderful vegetable sampler. That was Thanksgiving in August. Nature and her changing seasons left a lasting impression on me this year.

After graduating in February I realized I was too used to studying to give it up completely so I began studying the stars. As I became more familiar with the night sky I also felt more at home whereever I went. The same stars were out at night on the Chesapeake Bay as were out in the Adirondacks. In addition it required a certain stretching of ones imagination to reconcile the distances of the cosmos with distances between the veins in a blade of grass or the length of time a star burns with the short lifespan of a mayfly. Mental gymnastics.

Now winter is upon us again. The earth has gone almost full circle since I graduated. I’m in school again. The trees are again naked. The stars I watched last February are reappearing inthe sky. I’m a year more distant from my birth or perhaps closer to my death. Cycles, rhythmicity, regneration and growth have new menaing. And I’m applying it all to my study of the human body.

Created December 1981 by James P. Thomas