Galleries

Flying from Beijing to Shanghai, Susan and I boarded the Viking cruise ship Yi-Dun.  We had the pleasure of a Shanghai city tour in which we viewed an ancient garden containing ornate buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties. 

The skyline of Shanghai is impressive, containing the world's third tallest building, the Shanghai Tower with 128 floors, at 2073 feet high.  (The world's tallest building is Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 2722 feet high.  The second highest is the Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 2227 feet.)--source Wikipedia

Zen Buddhism came to Japan from India in the 13th century.  There was no direct conflict with Shintoism, so many temples honor both religions.  The Kyoto Zen Buddhist complex was financed by the Shogun, the richest and most powerful man in Kyoto at that time.

Wadi Rum is the landscape used in the hit movie The Martian (starring Matt Damon) and countless other movies.

Musings about Detroit, the Kahlo/Rivera exhibit, the Detroit Symphony, and the Mayo Clinic.

Hiroshima is a beautiful city.  Its present beauty hides the hideous past, in which Hiroshima was the first target of a nuclear weapon.  Its Nuclear Memorial and Museum preserve the disturbing images which every current leader of a nuclear power should be obliged to visit.

It has been said that the American healthcare system is not about health, nor is it a system.  Rather, it has been described as a pyramid scheme run by insurance companies with government collaboration, in which exorbitant premiums are collected from those who can afford to pay.  Profits are maximized by simply paying out less in benefits than what is collected in premiums.  The sicker the American population is, the more profits can be made by the insurance companies.  Care is withheld from the uninsured... 

Four years ago, Susan and I toured Jordan for the first time. Through the internet, I hired a driver/tour guide based on an ad from a Jordan tour company. This driver, Mazen, met us at the airport holding a sign with our names on it. Spending hours together with him in the car that first year, we became close friends with Mazen. We have hired him as our tour guide during our three subsequent Jordan visits. Mazen has invited us to his house twice for dinner with him and his wife. Both he and his wife speak enough English to get to know each other well enough to cement our friendship. . .

2018 marks the sixth conference in Jordan of the Middle East Nurses United in Human Caring. The conference was started by nursing pioneer Dr. Jean Watson, together with nurses from Israel and Palestine. Jean, who holds now 12 honorary international doctorates based on her Caritas. . .