Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: optimism

  • Children treating children: Anne Shirley as clinician

    Kathryne Dycus Madrid, Spain   First edition cover of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, published 1908. Cover art by George Fort Gibbs (1870—1942). Public Domain. Childhood classics provide a range of illness narratives, reminding readers of dangers now preventable and even treatable, but also of the universal imperatives of understanding and accommodating…

  • Locked down!

    P. Ravi Shankar Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia   Art by Devika Allath, Year 8, Willoughby Girls High School, Sydney, Australia, 13-year-old niece of the author. The sun was about to rise on another day of lockdown. At the beginning of a new day there is a vague sense of optimism, but that is followed by an…

  • The doctor and the doll

    Ravi Shankar Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands    Norman Rockwell Doctor and doll Norman Rockwell, one of the most famous American artists of the twentieth century, depicted ordinary American life from an optimistic perspective. He once stated that he did not portray the ugly and the sordid, but portrayed life as he would like it…

  • Four-leaf clover

    Upreet Dhaliwal Delhi, India   Poet’s statement: You may have “doctored” for a million years, and you may have learned to hide your pain at hurts you couldn’t heal, but nothing quite prepares you for the loss of a beloved child.   Four-leaf clover When you arrived You brought sunshine and clouds; Optimism and despair;…