What a week! I feel like I have forgotten my most important “Paris Lesson”, that of slowing down and REALLY enjoying life. Some of the racing around this week was out of my control, well sort of. One evening I needed to manage a funeral home visit and an awesome lecture on violence against women. The funeral home visit was really nice, it was much more a celebration, rather than sadness and pain. I want my funeral to be a party! Good music, great food and wine. Maybe even a beer or two for those who have never learned to enjoy the complexity of wine.
The lecture was at Marian University, a part of their Global Studies Lecture series. I know as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner just how pervasive the problem violence against women is in our own country. It affects the burgeoning, overcrowded justice system, our over taxed health care system, and decreases the contributions of women in our country and our world. Violence against women cheats us! I also know that there are reports of generations of children in some African countries who are the product of sexual assault, and those reports say that the mothers are not bonding with their children! That terrifies me. If we already have boy soldiers killing and raping, what will become of this generation of unattached children? Will they be capable of even more violence? The lecture outlined briefly the International Violence Against Women bill that is due to he heard in our national legislature. In length we heard about Violence in the Congo, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. One young man asked about the cost to our country if we approve this bill. I want to know the cost to our country if we do not?
Later in the week I had the privilege of attending the third annual Outpouring event. It is a lovely wine tasting event that is a fund raiser for Legacy House. Dates stuffed with almonds then wrapped in bacon, brie baked and then dipped in a brown sugar sauce, crab cakes with aioli , stuffed mushrooms, and chocolate covered strawberries were a few of the oral memories I have from the event. I honestly only had one glass of Malbec as I knew I had to drive home, so I was not able to enjoy the full variety of wines available to be tasted. The music was a divine little jazz trio that I listened to for much of the night. Good friends, good food and drink and great music! Does it get any better? On the serious side though, I send many of my patients to Legacy House I can, with confidence, send my patients there just as I would my mother, best friend or myself if we needed services. I know that they will be treated with compassion and that the people they encounter there understand the issues of violence. AND it is free to the victims of violence that present there! Of course it would be better not to need the services at all!
And last evening I had the privilege of attending yet another lovely evening listening to the voice of Carrie Newcomer. She played in an exquisite nature park on the grounds of DePauw University. Set in the midst of limestone walls, birch trees haloed by the sun, and rolling green grass. She sang to us with a huge slab of limestone as her stage. Children ran, played and danced to her music. Her lovely, funny, hopeful music that is frequently my part of my morning routine. We took lawn chairs, a picnic basket and enjoyed.
No comments:
Post a Comment