A thought for today . . . and for always . . .

[CaliforniaPeggy]

[niyad]

1. Thank you.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Most welcome, my dear niyad . . .

[Clouds Passing]

3. Meliorism, I like that. Thanks CP 😁

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Thank you, my dear Clouds Passing! I like it too.

[LoisB]

4. Can't disagree. Thank you for the reminder.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. And thank you for your great words, my dear LoisB!

[SheltieLover]

5. Thank you for a beautiful thought, Peggy.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. And thank you for yours, my dear SheltieLover!

[ornotna]

9. Thanks Cal Peggy

A lovely thought.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. And thank you, my dear ornotna, for your lovely thought!

[NNadir]

10. I love a cool new word, and that is one very cool new word to me. THANKS PEG!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. I love what you said and I reflect it! Cool new words are, well ... Cool!

I thank you, my dear NNadir!

[crud]

13. If it were a religion

I would join

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. That's a good thought, my dear crud!

[MontanaMama]

15. Kindness is never the wrong decision.

This was my parenting philosophy and the bare minimum of what we should be willing to contribute in this world. Hence my signature line here on DU.

I think of you daily, CP, I know you have a lot going on. Thank you for this lovely reminder.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. Thanks so much, my dear MontanaMama ...

How kind you are! I appreciate your support for me, and for all the folks you know.

[Shambala]

16. I never thought i could change the entire world

but firmly believe and have always tried to live to change my little world around me for the better and that if enough people around the world felt the same then some day our ripples would meet.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. If we all do what we can, it will be enough, my dear Shambala!

The ripples will meet.

[BeneteauBum]

17. Peace begins with me

I live my life by this mantra…..and I have instilled the belief in my daughters. They’ll pass it on.
Peace ☮️

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. I wish that more people feel as you do, my dear BeneteauBum!

We do what we can, with what we have, where we are. And so will our children!

Peace to you.

[3catwoman3]

21. Meliora is the motto of the University of Rochester (in New York), which is my...

...undergraduate alma mater. The word is on my nursing school pin.

During my 45 years as a peds NP, my primary goal was always to provide parents with the information they needed to have as calm, comfortable and confident a parenting experience as possible. That was applicable for both well and sick visits, and across all ages. Anxious parents tend to have anxious kids.

I liked to speculate that if I could help someone be a calm parent, that would have a favorable effect on their children who may then grow up to be calm parents themselves, who might have calm children of their own, and on and on. Maybe a child 500 years from now, a child I would never know, might have a better life because of something I taught one of their ancestors. I hope so.

[Easterncedar]

23. Beautiful thoughts, 3catwoman3.

As an aside, my beloved great great aunt was a nursing teacher at Strong Memorial. Long ago.

[3catwoman3]

24. I graduated in 1973. When was she there and what was her name?

It feels like long, long ago.

[Easterncedar]

26. She was there at the founding

1925? I think she retired in the early 60s. There was a scholarship in her name, Grace L. Reid.

[3catwoman3]

27. What was the nursing student dorm and classroom building when I was there...

…Helen Wood Hall, and the original Strong Memorial building were both built at that time, and were connected by an underground tunnel which was very handy during the harsh Rochester winters.

There is also an alumni level of giving named for your aunt, the Grace L. Reid Society, for alumni who donate $250 annually to the school. As soon as I saw her name, I knew it sounded familiar.

After graduating, I worked at Strong Memorial. The patient units had long hallways and tall ceilings, rather like the hospital in the old TV show St. Elsewhere.

In the early 1970s, the nursing faculty were a rather arrogant lot, sad to say, who were very impressed with themselves, and often came across as “I know something you don’t know, and I’m not going to share it with you.” They weren’t very nurturing. In 2023, I attended our class’s 50th reunion, and this faculty attitude was a frequent topic of discussion among the few of us who were there. We all had the same feeling, and several tales to tell.

Here is one of my own stories about how cold-hearted the faculty often were. I applied to the school’s pediatric nurse practitioner program after working at Strong for about a year. I had graduated in the top 10% of my class, been the evening shift charge nurse on the very busy pediatric unit where I worked, and been approached about working in the pediatric ICU the medical center was planning to open. I was surprised when I was not accepted to the program, and really shocked by how I was notified. My application was simply mailed back to me with REJECT stamped across it in bright red letters. No polite cover letter with gentle generic words like, “Due to limited class size, we are not able to accept someone with your fine qualifications at this time but encourage you to re-apply for the next class,” etc etc. I confess I have never been able to forgive that rude and callous response. I’m going to guess your aunt would not have approved of that approach.

For that reason, I have very seldom made any alumni donations.

[Easterncedar]

28. Yow. That's ghastly.

My Aunt Grace was formidable, but kind. She and Helen Wood were colleagues of course. She served in France in WWI and taught nursing in Japan in the 20s.

[3catwoman3]

29. I was stationed in Japan for 2 years (1978-79) while in the Air Force nurse corps.

It was a fascinating 2 years. While there, one of the many interesting things I did, on the side, was work with a Japanese gentleman who was writing a history of Japanese dentistry. He needed someone to "clean up" his English translation, as the 2 languages differ greatly in sentence structure and other conventions. He had a whole chapter just on toothpicks. I enjoyed the challenge.

The Helen Wood Hall building had historical charm and character when I lived in it. It had both student rooms and classrooms. The student rooms were on the top 3 floors, and were all singles, which was nice, and the heavy wooden doors had glass transoms that cranked open and substantial dark metal doorknobs like you might see today at Restoration Hardware. There was a little elevator in the lobby that had one of those accordion-type gates that opened and closed with a pleasant soft metallic sound. There was definitely a feeling of class and elegance about the place.

That's all gone now. When I was at my reunion, one of my classmates and I got a tour of the floors that used to be the student rooms. They've all now been converted to faculty offices that look monotonously and anonymously the same - little beige cubicles with none of the character or charm that we had been able to enjoy. If we had not known we were in Helen Wood Hall, there was nothing about how that area looks now that would have clued us in to our location. Might as well have been a Motel 6. We both found that rather sad.

My maternal grandmother and my mother were both nurses. My grandmother left home at 16, to go to nursing school, graduating in 1918. I have her diploma, which is in surprisingly excellent condition, and both her and my mom's nursing school pins. I cherish all of these.

[Easterncedar]

30. What a legacy!

Just think of all the many many thousands of people you, your mother and your grandmother helped over the past 107 years.

[Easterncedar]

22. I like it.

It’s what my friends have been trying to do this year.

Thank you, Peggy, for the valuable addition to my vocabulary.

[Lionel Mandrake]

25. The word is derived

from Latin melior ‘better’ + -ism.