Two stents and you may be out

 

                 Two Stents and You May be Out

 Two days ago, the "unexpected" has become the expected. Bernie Sanders, a contestant for the presidential run for the year 2020, has succumbed to the unexpected, a heart attack, necessitating the implantation of two stents. Such a procedure is not uncommon for those of us who suffered a heart attack, not too serious enough perhaps, to take one out of running for anything or staying wherever we were.
Bernie Sanders had undergone "two stents" implants, which necessitated hospitalization for a couple of days, but for all practical purposes, this event may impact, if not take him out of the presidential run. Unfortunately, although survivability may be assured, this event is likely to cast a shadow on the contender's ability to perform his presidential duties, perhaps more so, the stress for running the campaign for the presidency.
Speaking from experience: four months ago, I had undergone a similar procedure--"two stents" implants following an unanticipated heart attack.Although I am not a candidate for the highest office in the land, I am an academic, "emeritus" professor of economics at Clark University, still quite active in research and publication in my field of study, I would not contemplate running for anything, the presidency notwithstanding.What is relevant here perhaps, is that in my case, the heart attack was triggered by the intense effort I have exerted in going over a "manuscript" in order to meet the publication deadline.
As an academic, I have faced a great deal of stress in meeting deadlines-- at Clark University, I have chaired 53 doctoral theses in economics with deadlines that had to be met for the success of my candidates for the PhD. The stress is what makes our footprints, whether that may be associated with being an academic, or in      asking one's constituents help in seeking the highest office in the land-- the presidency of the United States.
Unlike the senator, I am  a "Two timer".  My first"two stents" happened during my reading of doctoral theses several years ago. That did not give me  a card blanch-- few years later, this year I had a second round--two more stents.
With my second time around, I face a survival problem-- too many medications, less activity, but most of all , at least to my thinking then WHAT, and for HOW LONG the stents will survive.
A saying I have read somewhere, may be in a song: it is better the second time arround-- take my words, DO NOT BELIEVE IT.
My first time, with the stent implants , I did not even "Blink"; I neither knew what a stent was , nor what does it do, and most certainly I did not know that stents DO FAIL.  
Loosing one's ability to function,even for a day necessitated by the recovery process from stents implantation, for me personally, is worth a great deal more than a day or even 30 days worth of subsequent living. I do not know how others who have faced the same surgery have felt, but my experience would defy the "proverb" or "song", about the wonders of the second times around, at least as stent implantation goes-- it could not be more False.  
Mr Sanders is a"hardy" Senator from Vermont. For him  this is a  "first event". No doubt, he shall regain complete functionality in a very short time. He has a message that needs to be heard, not just  during the presidetial run, but for all time to come:
Believe in yourself and in your country's future-- that by getting together and acting our own conscious, we shall always achieve and maintain greatness.
Senator Sanders, I wish you well. Be assured that you shall recover, and, that you shall continue to serve your country and your constituents. 
I wish you a speedy recovery, and if the presidency is in your future, I wish you great luck and good health. 
 

It is my time to remember

                                      It Is My Time To Remember

It is Wednesday, September,11, 2019, a day where American throughout the continent in general and in New York city in Particular, perhaps the world at large, remember a day where hearts stopped, blood spilled, cries of disbelief, answered by the heroic acts of so many: American and many inhabitant of our world.
In remembrance of those who had fallen, and those who have given their lives for the safety and comfort of others, we pray for them and their families, above all we pray for the survival of our beliefs and our way of life.

Siting there around my kitchen table, a wine glass by my side, I looked through the wine glass, I saw an image that I knew sooner or later would be mine- a vision of someone who saw life beyond the present. Perhaps such a vision was seen by those who gave their life for ours.

Further from the kitchen table, in the dinning room, there stood an unopened, chilled bottle of Veuve Cliquot ( Rose), a gourmet Plaza Osetera Caviar, neither opened, just there to remind me of time past, a time where I would celebrate with a group of my PhD students at Clark University, the success  of one of their colleagues of being the recipient of the PhD in Economics, which I had chaired the doctoral theses.
So many years, so many PhD students I had chaired their doctoral theses and brought them to  successful conclusion; so much champayne celebrations that followed..

My own daughter, as was the case was my students, was celebrated along with her professors there at the house; she was celebrated as the recipient of PhD in Political Science from Brown University. There at the same dining room we have gathered with her professors and my own doctoral students to celebrate  another achievment; the award of a political science PhD to my own daughter.

I left the kitchen, with the vision of two events: a sad and unforgettable event,yet, with a heart full of gratitude for those who offered their life to defend our constitutionals values and the freedom the constitution affords us. The second vision is about the knowledge I was lucky enough to accumulate, and, for the qualities I was endowed with which enabled me to be a good thinker and a successful educator.

Passing the dinning room, I went to my study, where I sat wondering about the probability of survival; my own survival was the one I had to contemplate.

I recalled a note I have written to myself following a wonderful and heart worming event: Clark University dedication of the" Attiat F. Ott 'Seminar Room" : the seminar room where I have taught all my PhD students their Macroeconomic Theory, and conducted my Public Economics Seminar.
The dedication, acknowledged my contribution to graduate education at Clark University, and the Chairing  during my tenure of of 53PhD dissertations in the fields of Macro Economics and Public Economics, bringing them all to successful conclusion

I recall coming home after an unforgettable celebration, that I stood there by my desk and subconsciously wrote on  my calendar the following words: "From a Line to a Point".
Today; the September 11, 2019, I revisit what I had put down that far back.

As an educator, seeker of knowledge, I would do no less than search for the probability of ONE specific event, everything else remains the same ,calculating such a probability , all pertinent variables had to onsidered. Unfortunately, we seldom,if ever possess such a knowledge.

After so much reading about the likelihood of the occurrence of that Specific Event, I have decided on the wisdom of a saying I have learned as a child in a french school a long time ago; a saying that was popularized in a song by a very popular American actress: "QUI SERA, SERA".

May be that how one should  look at the future!