Natural Selections

Aileen Marshall

Father’s Day this year is June 20. Founded by a woman who was raised by her widowed father, it has been celebrated in this country on the third Sunday in June for almost a hundred years.  Despite its popularity, it took more than sixty years to be recognized as a federal holiday in the United States.

Father’s Day cake. (Photo credit: RecipeLion)

Sonora Smart Dodd is the person credited with starting the Father’s Day tradition we now practice in the United States. She was born in 1882 in Arkansas to Civil War veteran William Smart and his wife Ellen. The family moved to a farm outside of Spokane, Washington in 1889. In 1898 Sonora’s mother died giving birth to her sixth child. William raised all six children with the help of his only daughter. Sonora later married John Dodd. In 1909 she heard a church sermon about the newly established holiday, Mother’s Day. She felt strongly that men like her father should be honored, too. She approached church ministers about having such a day on June 5, her father’s birthday. The ministers felt they didn’t have enough time by that day, so they held it on June 19, 1910, the third Sunday of that June. Dodd also appealed to shopkeepers, the YMCA, and politicians. During the 1920s Dodd attended the Art Institute of Chicago, but after graduation she returned to Spokane and again worked to get support for and promote her idea.

In 1913 a bill declaring Father’s Day was introduced in Congress but did not pass due to fears that it was just a commercial holiday. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson celebrated by sending a telegraph to Spokane to raise some flags. He also supported making Father’s Day a holiday but couldn’t get it passed. President Calvin Coolidge recommended making it a holiday in 1924, but never issued a proclamation. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued a presidential proclamation honoring fathers on the third Sunday in June. Finally in 1972, sixty-three years after Dodd first started petitioning, President Richard Nixon made Father’s Day an official federal holiday.

There was evidence for the politicians’ fear of commercialization of the holiday. Even when Dodd first started promoting the holiday, she had the help of several trade associations, who realized that they could benefit from a new holiday, particularly manufacturers of menswear and tobacco. The Great Depression spurred retailers to further promote men’s gifts for that day. By the 1980s the Father’s Day Council noted that it was a “second Christmas for the men’s gift-oriented industries.”

Some sources claim that the tradition of Father’s Day was started in West Virginia, but this is not the case. In December of 1907, a coal mine exploded in Monongah, West Virginia. Over three hundred men were killed. The following spring, Grace Golden Clayton proposed a service in her church to honor all the fathers among the victims. It was only meant to be a one-time event, held on July 5, 1908. The sermon was never published, the event was never promoted beyond that specific date and town. It wasn’t celebrated again until many years later when Father’s Day had become popular.

Many European countries celebrate fatherhood on March 19, also known as Saint Joseph’s Day. The Catholic Church promoted this custom as far back as 1508. Early Spanish and Portuguese immigrants continued this tradition here. Many other countries around the world have taken up the American-style celebration of Father’s Day in June. Germany has had a unique practice since the 1700s. They celebrate a men’s day or gentleman’s day on Ascension Thursday, which is forty days after Easter. Groups of men will walk to some destination pulling a wagon full of wine and beer bottles and some provincial food, usually including ham. This goes back to an old farming tradition where a town would recognize the man with the most children with a prize. During the twentieth century, the tradition had become an excuse to drink heavily. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reports that traffic accidents increase by threefold that day.

Today the practice in the United States is to give one’s father conventionally gender-oriented gifts such as ties, tools, or sports gear. Some families may get together for a Father’s Day brunch or cook-out. And there are many greeting cards sent each year. It will be interesting to see how the holiday evolves in the future.

[June2021 AM 002] Hiking tour on Father’s Day, Vatertagswanderung, in Germany (Photo credit: Wikicommons)

Several recent, widely publicized attacks on the Asian American community have spotlighted the rise in anti-Asian sentiment and racism in America. This is not a sudden or new development, but the result of years of pernicious racism. We wish to express, in no uncertain terms, our support for and solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Racism will not be tolerated. Discrimination will not be tolerated. We stand together with #AAPI.

We invite you to use Natural Selections as a platform to share your thoughts and experiences regarding these issues. If you wish to submit a piece, we encourage you to contact our editorial staff. Now is the time to use our voices to lift up the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

https://stopaapihate.org/

Joanna Yeung

Politics Under the Microscope (PUTM) is a student-led podcast by graduate students Joanna Yeung, Ellie Thompson, Naira Abou-Ghali, and Nina Glenn. PUTM aims to capture the thought process of policy makers as they respond to complex problems and to discuss the implications those policies will have for the scientific community and broader society. On the morning of Saturday March 6, Joanna and her fellow colleagues shared their perspectives on being a part of Politics Under the Microscope.

What is PUTM? How would you describe our missions and values?

Ellie Thompson: PUTM is like an octopus because we do so many things. We advocate for the use of a scientific perspective when analyzing and discussing political, social, and contemporary issues. Through our podcast, we also aim to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities in STEM in addition to recruitment of scientists into the political landscape.

Nina Glenn: The heart of PUTM really comes back to education. Ultimately, we want to give people the tools to be well-informed citizens who can create tangible actions based on that information. Our goal is to empower people after educating them so that they can take an informed and rational viewpoint into these discussions to educate other people and to continue educating themselves.

Joanna Yeung: Not only is PUTM about educating other people but also about educating ourselves. We are all young scientists trying to learn more science policy and PUTM was the perfect excuse for me to get more involved with science policy.

How did the PUTM members all meet each other?

 Naira Abou-Ghali: The Grants Office at Weill Cornell is really proactive about sending opportunities. While I was scrolling through my emails, I saw an opportunity to get funded for a science policy themed podcast through Research America. I thought starting a podcast would be the perfect way to learn about science policy, but I needed other people with me because I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I sent a message through the SEPA (Science and Education Policy Association) Slack group and I was lucky enough to have Joanna, Ellie, and Nina reply. The rest is history.

ET: Within the span of a week of meeting each other, we were able to work on the Research America grant, submit it, and actually get funded!

Out of all the episodes PUTM has produced so far, what kinds of discussions have been really inspiring or insightful to hear about?

ET: The Reverend Holt interview was the most powerful to me. As scientists, we are so focused on the lab bench. But Reverend Holt made me realize, “Will the science I do get to the people that we care about? Will it be accessible to everyone in society?” Scientists have a role with what happens with our science and how our science is used to benefit the community as a whole.

NAG: For me, it was also Reverend Holt’s interview. I can remember getting goosebumps from just her introduction. She is a black woman who was not born at a hospital because at the time, it wasn’t allowed. She takes us to the rest of her journey of advocating for the underserved and underrepresented when it comes to their healthcare. That interview highlighted the journey of one woman that had a background in science as a nurse but didn’t actually work at the bench and she is doing incredible work for equitable access. As a scientist, we can take the extra steps to advocate for policies that bring our research out there and guarantee equitable access. We are only 1500 words away from making an impact, which is the length of a policy brief. It was just an incredible perspective to hear.

NG: Something that stuck out to me in Representative Moulton’s interview was when he mentioned K through 12 education. He noted that it’s great to care about college education, but a lot of people don’t make it to that point. It’s important to invest in what’s there (scholastic resources before the undergrad/grad level). It shows how essential it is to have well-informed policy makers because they are who we point to in society.

In Representative Houlahan’s interview, she talked about how nonlinear paths in science still matter, but are not always considered when we think about the way that policies or school policies are made. For instance, what kind of support is there for a single mother in grad school? We have to think about what the broader society looks like and not just what we look like. We need to consider how we can use our personal stories to empower other people who might have entirely disparate stories but are going through a similar experience. The biggest takeaway was the ability to use policy to see these recurring themes in science and being able to connect different pieces of society together.

JY: What I really took out of the Reverend Holt interview was the prevalence of mistrust towards COVID-19 vaccines. I’ve lived in a very privileged bubble and haven’t considered that people could have mistrust towards something that I would have absolute trust towards.

In addition, [Representative] Houlahan’s interview made me think about my privilege when she talked about her experience as a grade 11 chemistry teacher. She said something along the lines of “do you know how hard it is to teach grade 11 chemistry when the students that you’re teaching have grade three to four reading level?” This made me aware of how many people don’t have access to high quality education throughout their whole lives and as a result, have difficulty with learning more complex concepts because they lack those foundational skills. It was really insightful for me to just learn about people outside of my little bubble that I exist in.

What are PUTM’s future plans?

ET: With regards to outreach plans, we have been offered [a] guest instructor opportunity with HypotheKids to teach underserved 11th and 12th graders in the New York city area about the practical applications of science.

JY: We have a lot of cool episodes in mind that we haven’t gotten to yet. One topic we are interested in covering is climate change and the policies around that. We’re also super excited about the mental health series.

NAG: We are also planning an episode series on feminism and misogyny in STEM. We would like to talk about protecting women, especially women of color in science. You read these bone chilling accounts of the way that some women of color specifically are treated in high knowledge environments and it’s just unacceptable. That is a really important thing that we have to address as well.

For more information about Politics Under the Microscope, check out our website, social media accounts, and add us to your playlist on Spotify!

Aileen Marshall

April 22, 2021 will be the 51st Earth Day. What started as an educational initiative in the United States has evolved into an annual global event to advocate for the environment.

The roots of Earth Day go back as far as the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. That was the first impetus that made Americans aware of the effects of pollution. On January 28, 1969, an oil well off the coast of Santa Barbara, California spilled three million gallons of oil and killed more than 10,000 sea creatures and birds. The news coverage caused an increase in public awareness and support for the environment. Then, at the 1969 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Conference, a proposal was made to honor the Earth on March 21, 1970; the day of the vernal equinox, also known as the first day of spring. The United Nations still observes Earth Day on March 21 and rings a Japanese peace bell at the exact moment of the equinox.

Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin), inspired by the youth activism at the time, proposed a national environmental teach-in day for April 22, 1970. He chose that day because it didn’t interfere with finals and most students would still be on campus. He recruited Dennis Hayes, a youth activist at Stanford University, to oversee coordinating activities. Senator Nelson provided his office staff to help Hayes. The United Auto Workers union was the largest financial contributor and provided office supplies. Hayes later said the first Earth Day wouldn’t have been possible without their support. Hayes changed the name to Earth Day which caught on with the media. He is still on the board of the organization today.

The first Earth Day in 1970 was celebrated in over 10,000 schools across the country and many cities including New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Here in New York a group of Columbia University students got Mayor Lindsay to close part of Fifth Ave for the occasion. He also made Central Park and Union Square available for festivities. Paul Newman and Ali McGraw spoke in Union Square to much press coverage. In Philadelphia, Senator Edmund Muskie, Ralph Nader, Allen Ginsburg, and Harvard biochemist George Wald spoke. In Washington DC, Pete Seeger performed and members of Congress gave speeches. It was later that year that bipartisan support established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The Earth Day organization has helped advocate for many environmental protection laws since then, including the Endangered Species Act.

Since 1970, the event has grown and evolved. By Earth Day 1990, the event could be promoted on the internet and over email, as well as on television. Funding was in the millions, allowing the event to go global. Over 140 countries participated. That year, the focus was on recycling. There was a live phone call from the state of Washington to an international group of climbers on Mount Everest. The team of climbers from China, Russia, and the United States collected two tons of trash from the mountain. In 1995 the website earthday.org was established. By Earth Day 2000, 184 countries had joined in. Almost half of a million people gathered on the Washington Mall to hear Leonardo DiCaprio and others speak. In 2017, the organization coordinated with the March for Science, a group that advocates for science literacy and evidence-based policies. The 50th Earth Day in 2020 was celebrated on-line due to the COVID-19 pandemic, another example of the effects of environmental issues. The focus had shifted to citizen science and community engagement. There were three days of live stream events, with Bono, and even Pope Francis joining in.

Earth Day is now considered the largest secular event in the world. This year’s theme is Restore Our Earth, with a focus on clean-up events particularly in areas disproportionately affected by climate change. To learn more about the organization and this year’s activities, go to earthday.org.

Sean Wallace

As an enthusiastic meditator, I am delighted that mindfulness is now a household word. An increased awareness of the benefits of meditation has led more people to try mindfulness practices to help combat stress, anxiety, and other afflictions, often at the suggestion of health care professionals. Mindfulness is a form of meditation that typically involves sitting quietly and focusing the attention on the sensation of the breathing. Experienced meditators claim that this practice helps to cultivate desirable mental states, including feelings of tranquility, equanimity, and even bliss. This practice may result in lasting changes in everyday life, including increased ability to focus on a task without being distracted, to deal with stressful situations in a detached manner, and to avoid getting caught up in negative emotions. In a nutshell, mindfulness makes you happier.

Meditation is an ancient practice that is traditionally associated with Eastern religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism. Meditation, like all religious practices, involves a fair amount of ritual and is accompanied by certain beliefs about the nature of the universe that do not sit well with a modern scientific worldview. When meditation was introduced to the West in the 1970s, its association with mysticism was met with skepticism by the scientific community. Western students of meditation were associated with the psychedelic hippie culture of the 1960s and 70s, which further reduced the credibility of meditation as a serious practice. Despite the flourishing of secular approaches to meditation, its origins as a mystical practice and its ongoing association with “spirituality” (whatever that may mean to you) can still be off-putting for some people. Meditation in its most fundamental form, however, is simply a technique that involves using attention in specific ways to train the mind. There is no need to sit cross-legged on a cushion, burn incense sticks and chant in Tibetan to meditate (although by all means do if you find it helpful). Modern approaches to meditation have adapted the ancient practice of mindfulness for a secular audience.

Today mindfulness is a billion-dollar industry. Overblown claims about its utility as a cure for all modern ailments can make mindfulness seem like a trendy health fad. A comparison is often made between meditation and physical exercise. Just as physical exercise improves the health of the body, so does mental exercise improve the health of the mind. The problem with this analogy, from the point of view of the skeptic, is that the benefits of physical exercise are obvious for all to see, while the benefits of meditation are primarily mental and much more difficult to ascertain. When faced with an Olympic athlete and a couch potato, nobody doubts that physical exercise can improve the functioning of the body. When an experienced meditator claims that their practice makes them feel better, the skeptic is not so easily convinced. To make things worse, most people find their first attempts at practicing mindfulness to be underwhelming. Focusing on the breath or any other subject for a period of time is surprisingly difficult. Novice meditators may doubt whether the effort is worthwhile.

The benefits of meditation take some time to become apparent. There are countless examples of anecdotal evidence for these benefits. I have an anecdote of my own; I have been practicing mindfulness meditation for several years now, and I am convinced that it helps me feel less stress, sleep better, and has improved my overall mental well-being. But there are also countless examples of people who are convinced of the healing powers of crystals or homeopathy. For a skeptic who has tried to meditate and found no benefit, why persist with a practice that takes up valuable time?

Fortunately, we do not need to rely on anecdotes to be confident that mindfulness practice results in tangible benefits. Despite the initial hesitation of the scientific community to take meditation seriously, there has been an explosion of research papers on the subject in recent years. A PubMed search for ‘mindfulness’ has approximately 20,000 hits today. There is, however, still plenty for the skeptic to object to even here. Most scientific studies on meditation are epidemiological in nature and involve comparing groups of meditators to non-meditators for the traits of interest. Controlling for confounding variables is notoriously difficult in these kinds of studies. Individuals who choose to take up meditation practices are likely to be more health conscious than the general population and separating the effects of meditation from those of diet or exercise, for example, is challenging. There is, therefore, a great deal of variation in the quality of the research papers published on mindfulness. However, there have been many rigorous, well-controlled studies that have been able to attribute improvements in mental function to specific mindfulness practices.

Mindfulness practice is often undertaken in the form of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course, as pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn. These programs typically involve thirty minutes of daily meditation over an eight-week period, including mindfulness of the breath and body scans, where the attention is focused on bodily sensations. There have been hundreds of studies that show beneficial changes in individuals who participate in one of these courses. One study used fMRI to assess the brain activity of participants who had completed MBSR courses. Participants were presented with disturbing images as stressors and researchers found significant decreases in amygdala activity that correlated with reduced self-reported stress reactivity. A similar study found reduced levels of stress hormones when individuals who completed a MBSR course were exposed to stressful situations. A third study found that after completing the course, participants demonstrated increased ability to concentrate on specific sensory inputs. These changes were observed following about thirty cumulative hours of mindfulness practice, but improvements in attention have been observed in novice meditators who have been instructed in mindfulness meditation for as little as ten minutes. While these effects are certainly transient, they show that even small doses of mindfulness can be helpful.

For those who wish to take their meditation practice deeper, there have been studies of long-term meditators with thousands of hours of practice under their belt, showing profound changes in the brain, including a reduction in baseline activity in regions of the prefrontal cortex that are associated with wandering minds. These studies demonstrate that experienced meditators are less likely to be lost in thought even when they are not actively engaged in their meditation practice. For a comprehensive and critical analysis of the scientific studies of meditation, I strongly recommend reading Altered traits: science reveals how meditation changes your mind, brain and body, by Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson.

I hope that this article has convinced skeptics that meditation is an activity that is worth considering. Even hard-nosed materialists who balk at the idea of spirituality can benefit from training the mind. If you are starting out with a meditation practice, it is important to have realistic expectations. The benefits of meditation are gradual, and patience is required. Novice meditators often give up because they are unable to focus on their breath for more than a few seconds and they realize how thoroughly out of control their mind is. This realization is actually a sign of progress. Most people are not aware that they spend most of their life in a state of distraction. Once you notice you are distracted, you can choose to return the awareness to the breath, even if only for a few seconds before you are lost in thought again. Repeat this process indefinitely, and the ability to notice what is going on in your mind will gradually strengthen. Everything you experience, feel, and care about takes place in your mind. Often it is your reaction to life’s events, and not the events themselves, that influences the quality of your existence. The ability to observe your inner mental state at any moment is a skill that allows you to get off the rollercoaster of reactivity that so often dictates your responses to situations. This enables you to respond in more positive ways to events as they occur, and ultimately improves the quality of your life and the lives of the people you interact with.

Bernie Langs

The Plot by Bernard Langs is available as a Kindle Book on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Bernard-Langs-ebook/dp/B081SF5W5Q/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Bernard+Langs+the+plot&qid=1614191242&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve written over two dozen novellas and abandoned about a dozen others mid-creation. Each writer has their own process, and it is the process itself that is so satisfying when creating fiction. Some authors map out an outline of their plot in advance, while others maintain biographical files for each of their characters, ensuring that their motivations and behavior remain consistent with their backstories. I use a “real time” methodology by filling in details as I create images to apply over the primer coat on the canvas of imagination. This allows for events to spontaneously roll out and evolve as I act as a somewhat passive chronicler rather than omniscient power, creating the illusion that the characters maintain free will responding instinctively to unexpected situations.

My books are inspired by revelations and chance events witnessed in day-to-day life. For example, after visiting an antique arts establishment where a gallery assistant explained to me the meaning of several celestial maps engraved by Andreas Cellarius, I began writing a story centered around the magical images, with the gallery scenario setting off the action (The Lamentation for the World). While watching the James Bond film Skyfall, when Bond’s ancestral house in the wilds of Scotland appeared onscreen, I thought, “I’m going to put a ghost in that old mansion” (The Ghost of Whispering Pines).

Once I receive that spark of an idea, I intuitively sense the main characters who will undergo the book’s adventures. At times, I use personality traits of my friends or borrow perceived and implied personas from strangers I see in passing for the demeanor of individuals appearing in the novella.

Once I have the major premise in mind, I commence each writing session knowing at most two vaguely imagined scenes of action at a time so as not to get ahead of the story. I write with key phrases of dialogue and basic events at the ready prior to sitting down at the computer. I never want to know how a book will end until very late in the process. With characters behaving in a “real time” world, each personality develops naturally and interacts with new arrivals to the action, veering off in unexpected ways. Early in the writing of one of my older books, I found a secondary character taking over as the main character after realizing through his dominating actions and ideas that he was much more interesting than the original protagonist (The Minister of Peace).

My books eventually morph into complex and intriguing puzzles and after about eighty or so pages, it dawns on me how everything fits together. This unexpected “reveal” of what has unknowingly been going on the entire time is my favorite part of the creative process.

My most recent novella, The Plot, was inspired by several eureka moments that coalesced prior to committing pen to paper. While watching the sci-fi movie Annihilation, I suspended my imagination and saw the actors as they truly were—people saying lines of a script with a camera and crew lurking unseen nearby. Yet the cast was so engrossed in the setting and their roles, it was as if their space had become a reality located somewhere between our world and one of film fantasy.

Another inspiration for The Plot was a trip to London and Florence in 2018. At dinner in a restaurant in Florence, I spied a mysterious middle-aged man dining alone, obviously held in high esteem by the wait staff. I told my wife, “I don’t know what my next book is going to be about, but it’s going to begin in this restaurant with that guy at that table.” Which is exactly how it is played out in chapter one of The Plot with those very words spoken by one of the central characters.

The lead characters in the novella are Robert Halle, based on the persona of the true-to-life 58-year-old British actor, Ralph Fiennes, and his younger counterpart, Guy Randolph, based on the physical traits and personality of Leonardo DiCaprio. With an actress, Felicity Felicitas, modeled after the British star Lily James, the three are working on a free-form film directed by an innovative young Argentinian director, Alejandro Alencia, whom I created as an amalgamation of several real-life current foreign directors. Their movie is being shot in Florence with additional scenes taking place at a Palladian Villa and Hampton Court Palace in the UK. The actor Halle portrays an intelligence agent, Karl Smythe, in service to England trying to unravel the mystery of why a novel written by Randolph’s character, Justin Teagle, has set off an international crisis the nature of which has yet to be completely understood.

Robert Halle acts as the narrator of the action both as himself and as his film persona, Agent Smythe, and the reader discovers that when he and Guy Randolph undergo the best “take” of a scene, their reality as actors completely vanishes and they become unwittingly immersed into the world of Alecia’s arthouse film, The Plot. The movie characters face growing danger as the situation in the film becomes dire, and the actors are forced to gamble prior to the cry of “Action!” that they will emerge from the fantasy before any permanent harm is inflicted upon them. As the stakes grow higher in the movie they are filming, the chances increase that Halle and Randolph will lose the capacity to escape from Alencia’s fantasy, yet they are willing to risk their lives to find out what will ultimately occur in the alternative movie reality.

I knew that at some point I would have to explain the details and specifics of what lurks behind the espionage in the imaginary film world. My own understanding of where the book was ultimately going began when I caught sight from a distance of an Italian friend of mine and thought, “She knows more about Italy than I’ll ever know—she truly embodies Italy.” A new character came to life at that moment, “The Contessa,” living in a villa designed by Palladio in the Veneto who receives both spy and novelist to lay out in detail what it is that they are chasing. Days later, I spotted on the streets of Manhattan a tastefully dressed, 55-year-old woman and I introduced her as The Contessa’s counterpart, “The Madonna,” ruling mystically and benevolently over Florence within the film being shot in The Plot.

What would The Contessa reveal to be the plot of The Plot? Turned out to be another “plot,” the Pazzi Conspiracy of fifteenth century Florence where Giuliano de’ Medici was assassinated in the famous Duomo cathedral. I have no memory of creating the idea. I only recall writing the pages of passionate and dryly humorous discussion at The Contessa’s villa where she explains through an acerbic translator to the intelligence agent Smythe and novelist Teagle, the far-flung idea that although they speak together in the year 2018, Giuliano de’ Medici, her dearest nephew, is, as they speak, en route with an entourage of angelic psychopomps to his final resting place. Prior to his expected beatitude, she tells them, Giuliano is to have an audience with God and during that meeting she fears that he will take advantage of the Being’s fondness of him to encourage the deity to undergo the swift destruction of all the world. Giuliano, The Contessa notes, is convinced that Mankind’s penchant for pitiless violence and other outrages of the soul have left the species unworthy as creations of the Divine. The Contessa believes that unless Smythe and Teagle travel back to April 28, 1478 and prevent the assassination of her nephew, God will heed the call of this most beloved son of Florence and in a single immediate stroke, destroy the earth.

The Plot ends at the meeting between the two actors and the Italian actress who had portrayed The Madonna with Giuliano de’ Medici not as their film characters but as themselves. The four of them speak seated at a long snacking table inside of a New Jersey Turnpike-style rest stop somewhere in the Heavens, an oasis and illusion created to make the living interlopers feel natural and at home somewhere in the obscure reaches of the Heavens. The savvy, intellectual, and dashingly charismatic Giuliano, with selected passages of his speech translated into Italian, makes complex and salient points about the terrible and destructive behavior of Mankind throughout history. When I initially read back his diatribe, I was surprised that his impassioned observations were in no way reflective of my own thoughts on the subject, but an expression in accordance with the personality of the character of Giuliano and seemingly under his control. I had become a passive stenographer recording the presentation of his “case” against Mankind. His manner of speaking and his complex, convoluted expression of ideas made The Plot more an intellectual read than I planned when setting out to write the tale. I had wanted to present an exciting fantasy about the nature of movies and reality and now, almost out of nowhere, I had this historical banking scion arguing on moral grounds for the destruction of the human species.

Once I knew and understood what the last chapter would entail, I anticipated a very dark ending to The Plot. In the long run, I did not go through with it because I didn’t want to be responsible for a work of fiction that damns the world to instantaneous oblivion. The pleas voiced by Halle and Randolph in defense of humankind, their metaphoric “client,” make a strong counter argument in opposition to Giuliano’s damnation, centering on allowing humankind to proceed undeterred to a potentially better future or to a natural demise of its own making, rather than one guided by divine decree. The ultimate ending of The Plot is ambiguous, leaning towards the notion that Giuliano prevails after having expressed his disappointments to a “Higher Being” about humankind’s failure to fulfill ideals of love, justice, artistic expression, and scientific creativity. His greatest disappointment is how individuals lazily withdraw from the difficult task of realizing their relationship with the Divine, ceding the responsibility to various established religions as herded congregants, and handing over the vital, essential purpose of unique souls to ignorant and greedy “priestly castes” throughout history.

In March of 2021, I remain creatively exhausted from the time and work I put into the book over two years ago and there is a very good chance that The Plot will be my last novella.

Audrey Goldfarb

This month I had the pleasure of meeting Luna, the incredibly sweet English cream golden retriever. She lives with her parents Tatsuya Araki, a Ph.D. student in the Victora Lab at The Rockefeller University, and Jingwen Zhou, a senior research technician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Luna approaches every interaction as an opportunity to make a new friend, and given her delightful personality, she rarely fails.

Audrey Goldfarb: How did you first meet Tatsuya and Jingwen?

Luna: We first met in Utica, New York where I was born. I greeted my pawrents with the cutest puppy dance they had ever seen! We had an instant bond!

 AG: What is your favorite game to play?

L: It has to be tug of war game with my daddo!

 AG: What is the best thing that happened to you this week?

L: Sleeping over at friends’ place and they gave me lots of treatos!

 AG: Do you have any dog friends?

L: I am friends with almost every doggo on this campus, but Pal the corgi is my bestie!

 AG: Who are your favorite human friends, other than your family?

L: This is a hard one—I love every human who says hi to me!

 AG: What is your love language?

L: Happy waggy dance with a plushie toy in my mouth!

 AG: What are you most excited about today?

L: Hehe… it might be insignificant, but I had some really sweet oranges that made my day!

 AG: What do you think people appreciate about you?

L: I am not picky at all and will help with everything you don’t eat! 

AG: If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

L: Snow day every day!

AG: Describe your perfect Saturday.

L: Double breakfast + playdate with friends + snack party + knockout next to my humans

AG: If you could be a different animal for a day, what would you be and what would you do?

L: I would become a cat and try to be friends with that cat sister with whom I never got along…

AG: What is your favorite thing about Tatsuya and Jingwen?

L: I can burp and fart in front of their faces with no shame!

AG: What would Tatsuya and Jingwen do without you?

L: They better not have fun behind my back… I’m watching you guys! Always!

Konstantina Theofanopoulou

Gretchen M. Michelfeld

Yes, there have been bumps in the road to rollout the coronavirus vaccine, with people who are fully eligible having trouble getting vaccination appointments while refrigerators full of doses languish unused. Those of us who worry about equitable medical treatment for marginalized populations are staying politically hypervigilant, and many are trying to help older family members and neighbors navigate New York City’s convoluted online appointment system.

But hope is in the air as we see more and more of the public vaccinated. We can almost picture ourselves in a post-COVID world replete with ball games, theatre, in-person school, and hugging.

I informally polled a number of vaccine recipients (i.e., everyone I know who has been vaccinated) to hear their stories.

David Jay Smith, a Patient Representative at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, works at the Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion on East 53rd Street. He was vaccine-eligible because his job entails daily, direct contact with Sloan Kettering cancer patients. David received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine in January. Everything went smoothly. He got his appointments through his employer, was vaccinated at the hospital, and has experienced no side effects at all.

“I feel physically fine and getting the vaccine has been a positive thing for me emotionally. I was informed that I can still contract COVID, and can still be a carrier, so I’m taking all of the precautions I’ve been taking all year, but I believe that if I do contract COVID I will have a much milder case.”

In contrast, Ray and Bru Lopez were told that ten to fifteen days after their second shot, it would be safe to socialize indoors and mask-free. Eleven days after receiving their second Pfizer shot, Ray and Bru were thrilled to be able to attend their great-granddaughter’s birthday party.

“We were so happy to see everyone and get hugs,” Bru wrote to me, “It felt really good! That is what I have missed the most. Human touch. Fortunately, Ray and I have each other. There are so many people here who are widowed. They tell me all the time that we are so lucky to have each other.” Still, she was nervous. She wrote, “I was very reticent. I was not sure that we were totally safe. It was all family members, but still…”

The Lopezes live in The Buckingham, a retirement community in Houston, Texas. Their age made them a high priority to be in the first wave of vaccine recipients.

Bru explained, “They told us that Walgreens would be here on January 5 and again on January 26, and The Buckingham nurse called every resident and scheduled an appointment time. They administered 400 Pfizer vaccines to residents and staff. The shot was very quick, and we hardly felt it. My arm was a little sore the next day, but Ray did not have any problem. I guess you could compare it to a flu shot.”

The Lopezes and others in retirement communities and assisted living facilities are fortunate to have institutions working the system for them. I myself got a call from my mother’s nursing home, Braemar Living in Middletown, NY, saying that all residents would receive the vaccine. My mom didn’t even need an appointment. I gave my permission, and she received her first shot the same day.

New York City senior citizens who live on their own are having a tougher time getting vaccinated. Monica Liriano, a Market Research Executive in Jackson Heights, Queens, had to navigate several different websites before she could get her mother, Lady, an appointment.

“I feel like the appointment we finally got was a fluke. I was convinced we were going to show up and either it wasn’t a real thing, or she’d get turned away,” Monica told me. But once they arrived at the vaccine site at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, everything went smoothly. “All in all, the process took thirty minutes, there were no lines, no waiting outside and everything was really well organized. Also, no weird questions or directives—only that her arm might hurt and she should ice the area.” Monica was also pleased that the intake nurse made Lady’s second appointment right on the spot.

Lady was a bit nervous to get the vaccine at first, but now that she has had her first Moderna shot, she’s telling all her friends to get it too. Unfortunately, appointments are still very hard to make.

Unlike Lady, who experienced no pain or side effects, Aisha Mabarak, a staff member at a Child Advocacy Center in Brooklyn, had a bad reaction to her first Moderna shot and she has decided to follow the CDC guidelines* and not get her second.

“At minute ten of the fifteen-minute observational period after the shot I noticed my right hand was quite swollen,” Aisha told me. “A staff member called an EMT who came to my seat and, when he saw my hand, he moved me to a separate area where he checked my vitals. My heart rate was normal, but my blood pressure was a little elevated.” The on-site physician suggested she go to the ER as a precautionary measure. But Aisha hesitated (“You know, COVID and all.”) and soon the swelling subsided.

Aisha also had trouble making that first vaccine appointment. As a front-facing counselor who works alongside law enforcement and Child Protective Services, she was eligible right away, but her place of employment did not arrange for her to be vaccinated. Staff had to handle the system on their own. People whose employers arrange for vaccinations have a much easier time of it.

NYPD Sergeant Gerard Walker and Dr. Benjamin tenOever of Mt. Sinai were lucky to have their employers provide the vaccine.

Dr. tenOever Shows Off His Vaccinated Arm

Ben, the Fishberg Professor of Medicine and Director of the Virus Engineering Center for Therapeutics and Research at Mt. Sinai, was enrolled in the Phase III clinical trial for Pfizer. “We received either placebo (saline) or the vaccine,” Ben told me. “It was a blinded study, but it was very apparent what each person received based on whether their arm was sore the next day.”

Ben had to maintain a “COVID diary” thereafter to report on any symptoms he might be experiencing. He also had to promise not to get any other vaccines in the interim and, interestingly,not to have unprotected sex with anyone during the three-week period between shots. He felt totally fine after both shots, but, he says, others in the study developed fever and body aches after the booster.

Gerard feels fine as well.

“I’m glad the process is over,” he told me after he received his second Moderna shot at an NYPD shooting range in the Bronx that had been transformed into a testing/vaccination site. Like so many other vaccine recipients, Gerard reported soreness in his arm, but no other side effects.

Jim Keller, a grant writer/editor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and former Natural Selections Editor-in-Chief, was, like fellow employee David Jay Smith, happy to have Sloan Kettering provide vaccination appointments and administer the shots on site. Jim was not asked to keep a diary, but after the first injection, Sloan Kettering sent him a follow up questionnaire every day so that he could report any side effects. The shots did not hurt, but both times he noticed his heart rate increased. He believes this was anxiety.

And how does he feel now?

“I feel fine, both physically and emotionally. Mostly grateful to have been able to receive the vaccine so soon. Although, if I could, I would have given mine to my husband.”

Everyone I interviewed reported being glad to have received the vaccine. Even Aisha hopes “as more research develops there may be future guidance on reactions, and if it is ever deemed safe for me to receive the second dose, I will.”

Monica asked me to tell people, “Don’t be nervous to get the vaccine and ask for feedback about different locations since there seems to be varying experiences depending on where you go.”

Monica’s mom is doing very well, as are David, Bru, Ray, Ben, Gerard, and Jim. My mom has dementia, so she cannot tell me how the shot has impacted her health, but her caregivers report that she is feeling great and everyone is relieved the seniors and staff at Braemar are protected.

Let us hope we are all able to avail ourselves of this protection as soon as possible.

* www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/moderna/index.html