"How the Time Passes Us"

I find myself truly inspired when I am on an airplane. This poem was written on a very long flight back from Africa about two years ago.

How the time passes us

just a "toc" in our ear

the music

so wonderful

the ticking 

so clear

A song sung by so many

so many

so dear

We're on the clock, The Clock!

I'm on The Clock here

Still left wondering 

how the time passes us by

or

how we pass the time by

racing each other

or 

at least in my eyes.

Should Pharmaceuticals be Permitted Advertising Rights?

On the forefront of the American political arena lies the debate on healthcare and the rising costs associated with prescription medications for those who need it. However, turn on your television set and wait for the commercials to come in between shows and you will notice a rather large portion of our airwaves' advertising consists of ads which promote medicines of various sorts.

Viagra, Ambien, Lunesta, medicines for diabetes, arthritis, restless leg syndrome, menstruation, and any other health issue you can think of are advertised here on our televisions - and they all ask you to ask your doctor if you should take them. I ask you why are prescription consumers the ones who should be asking our doctor's if we can take (or should take) some special brand pill?

Why is it necessary, or legal for that matter, for drug companies to advertise their products on television? Should it not be our doctor's who tell us what we should take for our various ailments? It is our doctors who should be advertising these medicines to us in their offices, not the other way around.

According to Science Daily, big pharmaceuticals spend more on ads than on research (almost twice as much)! This astonishes me, and yet I am no where near surprised. According to The Consumerist, drug companies spend around $60 billion dollars yearly selling us what only a doctor should be prescribing.

I'd like to hear what you guys think about how healthcare costs are affected by such an immense amount of marketing. If you have been to another country, what differences have you noticed in medicine ads (I personally haven't noticed any medicine ads)? Furthermore, do you think drug companies should be allowed to attempt to persuade persons in need of medicine to buy their product, or should it be our doctors who tell us what is the right medicine for us? I am concerned but have yet to consent to an opinion on this matter.

Airports and Ipods

Music is a way to transform one's every emotion. Though subconsciously I have always known this, only recently have I become aware of what a powerful influence music can have on one's mindset.

While traveling back to the U.S. from Sweden, I was filled with emptiness. I had fallen in love with a nation and, in much haste, left to come back "home." I felt like I had fallen in love with someone only to be torn from that person. Un-ashamed, I cried leaving my new friends, and new love. I was looking for a way to fill my void sitting solemnly at the Stockholm airport.

I pulled my Ipod out from my bundled up North Face hoodie, and quickly made a playlist of songs which I thought fit my mood. Holding back some tears, I put in my headphones and an impossible suddenness of my surroundings transformed my perspective into a surreal landscape. With my headphones on, I became a spectator. An otherworldly creature who was there to observe. Suddenly every person's movements were set to notes and the world seemed to slow down, even stopping to let me through. I was listening to "Vanilla Twilight" by Owl City, but it felt more like the song was listening to me.

How is it possible that a collection of notes - of sounds - of chords and beats reflect one's mood so profoundly? Why does music impact us all on such a profound level? Is this what makes us human? And  lastly, does anyone dislike music as a whole?

-William Hamilton