I was born in the dawn of the space race, 15 months before the USSR launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, into an elliptical low Earth orbit. The excitement of the ensuing space race—what it required of and discovered for humanity, influenced the course of my life until today. My parents said, though … Continue reading FORUM: Joyful Surprise

My Mother’s family was captured by KGB in the first week of WWII. Her dad, my beloved Grandfather, was an estate owner and Officer in the Polish Cavalry. The eldest of three children, Mom was in third grade when two soldiers armed with machine guns entered her classroom and announced her name. Standing at attention … Continue reading FORUM: Discrimination

Friends in graduate school, Head, Grauton, Rayton and I lived by Lake Michigan on Chicago’s north side. School was done and we were working—some of us part-time. Still single, we enjoyed hanging out together when our schedules allowed. I was teaching part-time at University of Illinois, financially scraping by. I’d interviewed for a position as … Continue reading FORUM: First Time Treating

I was in my second year as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Medical School. I worked in the Department of General Internal Medicine, which addresses an enormous range of ailments, conditions and situations. Simultaneously I held a position as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Academic Psychology at the University of Illinois at … Continue reading FORUM: Tea Time with Yarnold

I was quite young—I can’t reliably be very precise. I moved so often during some of my early years that my memory of space and time are disoriented. Everyone who was with me then has passed away. Thus any estimates made of dates and ages during high-flux periods are likely to be inaccurate. I’d guess … Continue reading FORUM: First Professional Call

I was a soon-to-be third-year graduate student in academic psychology, in the school which was initiated by one of my top-ten heroes, Sir Isaac Newton: his studies of the apparent movement of stars in the sky became the field of vision psychophysiology. I had many brilliant, talented, fun friends in the psychology graduate program of … Continue reading FORUM: Nicknames

Two dear friends asked me if I recalled when others first began to recognize “gifts” which I was given. I had never considered this question, but I was pleasantly surprised to immediately recall two such incidences. As I began to write this story, I recalled several more. As a general response to the question asked … Continue reading FORUM: Recognizing Gifts

I was a 4th grade student in public school in Sierra Vista, which at that time was a small but growing Arizona town. Our house was located at the outskirts of town—we were feet from the Sonoran Desert. Dad was a mathematical statistician from the University of Chicago. He worked long hours in Fort Huachuca. Mom … Continue reading FORUM: Step-by-Step