#HAWMC: Stream of Consciousness After TEDMED Day #3
After two extremely packed days at the TEDMED conference and absence from this series, today’s post continues the month-long series called the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) created by WEGO Health. Today’s writing prompt: Stream of Consciousness Day. Start with the sentence “_______”just write, don’t stop, don’t edit. Post! It’s been two awe-inspiring days of TEDMED2012 … Read more
TEDMED2012…Let’s Caucus
Perhaps it is apropos that at the same time TEDMED chooses to move its conference east to Washington, D.C. it also adopts delegates over attendees and will debut 50 Great Challenges in health & medicine each of which has its own Challenge Advocate to lobby the vote of delegate in hopes of being selected into the final 20 Great Challenges. This might all feel vaguely familiar. Reminding you perhaps of the political conventions of old when presidential front-runners didn’t have their delegates wrapped-up ahead of time. Forgive me, for I digress. The Great Challenges initiative is an innovative way to bring interdisciplinary contributions to some of the most important problems of our time. I feel honored, as a delegate to be voting to narrow the focus down to twenty and appreciate the opportunity to meet and speak with several Challenge Advocates who might better inform my decisions. For better or worse, D.C. and lobbying go hand-in-hand. Thank-you TEDMED for bringing us more lobbying for good.
#HAWMC: Keep Calm and Do What?
This post continues the month-long series called the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) created by WEGO Health. Today’s writing prompt: Keep calm and carry on. Write (and create) your own Keep Calm and Carry On poster. Can you make it about your condition? Then go to (http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/) and actually make an image to post to … Read more
#HAWMC: Talk of Good News
This post continues the month-long series called the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) created by WEGO Health. Today’s writing prompt: Best conversation I had this week. Try writing script-style (or with dialogue) today to recap an awesome conversation you had this week. I found this prompt extremely challenging and was about to give up. … Read more
#HAWMC: All Learning Bears A Gift
This post continues the month-long series called the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) created by WEGO Health. Today’s writing prompt: Health Activist Choice! Write about what you want today/quotation inspiration. I came across this quote today and it really stuck with me. I thought back to the writing prompt from earlier this week … Read more
#HAWMC: Blossom Expectation
Blossom expectation, originally uploaded by Vangelis Bagiatis. This post continues the month-long series called the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) created by WEGO Health. Today’s writing prompt: Ekphrasis Post. Go to flickr.com/explore and write a post inspired by the image. Can you link it to your health focus? I must admit, the fact that … Read more
#HAWMC: I Write Because…
This post continues the month-long series called the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) created by WEGO Health. Today’s writing prompt: I write about my health because… Reflect on why you write about your health for 15-20 minutes without stopping. Throughout my education and training, I had always been fascinated by bioethics … Read more
#HAWMC: Armed with the (super)Power to Persuade & Motivate
There are so many myths and misconception regarding the organ donation process. It would be nice to just hold up my specialized neuralyzer and remove the fear and misinformation and replace it with empathy and enlightenment. Instead, I access a profoundly painful event and expose myself, revealing some of my vulnerabilities to complete strangers. Perhaps, the ability to do this is indeed a superpower. But, this is what it takes to be effective so I do my best to recount my family story with authenticity and emotion so that I might educate, persuade and ultimately motivate my audiences.
#HAWMC: It Didn’t Kill You but Does It Really Make You Stronger?
Victims of tragedy and survivors of trauma know something that the rest of society exerts a great effort to deny–unimaginably awful things can happen in this world , over which we may have no control. It is not fair but life does not have to be fair. There may not necessarily be a greater meaning and there may not be a bright side. The blog post I referenced earlier really resonated with my own experiences and the nagging uneasiness I often felt from that common phrase, “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”







