If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe

Well, that was good. I am stuffed to the rafters with Thanksgiving food. I may be writing into the ether, but I hope anyone kind enough to be reading enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. Today I am writing about ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while and this is mostly part of that exploration. The main idea is the triangulation of stories, improv, and healthcare. I will try to discuss each, how they relate to each other, and the idea of all 3 coming together. It seems much of the media I have been taking in has helped these ideas rise up. I finally read East of Eden by John Steinbeck this fall, I reread/listened to The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts last week while I was putting up Christmas lights***, and the song Storyline Fever by Purple Mountains. There have been a few times in my life where the media I am consuming so encapsulates the events of my life to the point of eeriness^^^. It could be happening all the time but in this moment in time, the synchronicity is definitely occurring.

So, the first idea floating around is the idea of stories and the importance of how understanding stories can help me understand the world. I am by no means an expert; however, I deeply enjoy reading and listening to people who are experts on storytelling and its role in human interactions. The connection of storytelling and healthcare is obvious for anyone who has taken a standardized test in a healthcare field. There is always at least one question where the correct answer is “Obtain a history and physical”. The history is the story of the patient’s issue. A story can quickly encapsulate several ideas into a concise set of data points. Healthcare education relies heavily on developing pattern recognition and understanding a patient’s story is essential to making sure you have the correct pattern. The connection of storytelling and improv is obvious to me, but to clarify, the more range of stories that I understand when I step on stage, the easier it is to create a world from nothing using predefined patterns that both my scene partner and I are aware of. This was problematic for me when Pokemon GO came out a few years ago and I had to do several shows with Pikachu as a suggestion. I had no idea of the storyline of Pokemon to help connect to many of my scene partners’ ideas. Those shows were more challenging than when I get to play an aloof surgeon or demanding patient but there were still laughs to be had. I had a choice when I was on stage about what I was going to focus on and have fun with. In East of Eden, one of the large concepts that I gathered from the book is that we always have a choice. “But the Hebrew word, the word timshel – “Thou mayest’ – that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open”. The idea of making a choice is central to applied improv as well. Augusto Boal, the inventor of Theater of the Oppressed, discussed this when he says in his book Rainbow of Desire  “The fundamental hypothesis underlying the totality of the Theater of the Oppressed; if the oppressed himself performs an action (rather than the artist in his place), the performance of that action in theatrical fiction will enable him to activate himself to perform it in his real life”. When we make a choice on stage to have fun, under the duress and immediacy of a performance, there is reason to believe that you can make that same choice to have fun in real life. We are not obligated to perform a predetermined story on stage, nor in real life. Another quote from East of Eden is “You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what it is, where most people see what they expect”. This describes when we get set in only the stories that we know rather than dealing with the information before us. If we hope to choose to get out of the story we think we are in, being present to the current situation is a necessary step. This brings us to The Wisdom of Insecurity and the discussion of the divided self. It’s impossible to be fully present when our attention is divided between observing our own behavior and existing in the world. Alan Watt’s describes this (and essentially describes the experience of being in a clear improv scene) when he says, “It is a dance, and when you are dancing you are not intent on getting somewhere… The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance”. Improv has helped me experience and feel what that quote means. Being present at work can allow me to recognize the story I am in and make the choice to move in the direction that suits my goals. I can recognize the story that my patients are in and help them realize there are many small choices to be made that move them in the direction of their goal. Talking my patients through those tiny changes ends up being the majority of my job on many days. Understanding a wide variety of stories can help me connect with patients and show them that they can write the ending to their story. To me, these ideas are summed up in the song Storyline Fever by Purple Mountains. Give it a listen and let me know if that relates to your experience.

My son made apple pie from scratch yesterday and it was excellent___. He did not invent the universe prior but he did use the ingredients that proceeded from the creation of the universe on a large enough timeline and it was his choices that led to the apple pie from the ingredients he was given. I hope you write yourself an apple pie

***(I know, it was before Thanksgiving and I don’t feel great about that, but it was nice weather and my work schedule allowed for it!)

^^^One other time was I finished a book about music in New York City around the year 2000 while listening to LCD Soundsystem’s album that just came out on the flight to a college friend’s wedding. I was in college from 2001-2005 so this experience was like an immersion in my college years.

___He also made a blueberry pie, but the dog ate it while we were at Thanksgiving dinner