Tuesday Top of Mind 9-1-26- Hooray, we made it to September

The bookcase in the header is not real. It is a mindfulness toy. You shelve the books, in any order you want. It is supposed to be soothing.

Until someone comes along and shakes the set like an Etch a Sketch. This is not soothing.

August was a beast.

Fallout from the lightning strike near the house.

Cleaning the garage so that there was a clear path to replace the garage freezer. In 98 degree heat with 80% humidity.

High profile deaths of personal heroes.

Lesser profile, but more personal deaths.

Let’s just be frank. August sucked sweaty balls.

I hope that September is kinder. It probably won’t be with the midterm elections looming but one can always hope.

There are other things that are top of mind for me today. Measles, the current covid wave (there’s a reason that everyone you know has covid, please practice good hygiene and wear a mask for Pete’s sake), rabies at a PETTING zoo here in North Carolina, USAID fallout and excess deaths from the sudden loss of funding around the world, the incessant drumbeat of election malfeasance, the growing list of food recalls, when the recalls spill over into non food items.

To name a few.

I wanted to kick September off with a more hopeful note.

I wanna talk books.

Last week one of my patients was a middle school teacher and we spent the time after all surgery prep was done and the surgeon was not yet at the hospital talking about books.

It was a delightful half hour.

They confessed that they adored listening to audio books. I confessed that audio books were lost on me, in one ear and out the other with no stop at the brain.

I got book recommendations.

I gave them some book recs as well.

It was a nice interlude.

Which got me thinking about re-reading some of my childhood/young adulthood/recent reads. So I started that.

I started with the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I had read them all, beginning with the first eponymous book when it was released in July of 2010. I’ve even read all the subsequent books, up to and including Sunrise on the Reaping.

You can even see Catching Fire, the second book, in the library toy picture.

I think they’re even better on a third reading. I read them originally when they came out, again before the movies, and now.

Same books, different messages received.

What is it about getting older and books just hitting differently?

Or is it a fact of our uncertain political times that make it so?

But, September, I have you on notice. I’ve got my eye on you.