Matthew's Blog
Healthcare Mission Statements: Just A Big Branding Decoration?
Most healthcare institutions have lovely sounding mission, vision, and values statements. You will often find them on their website. And most of the time, these statements aren’t that important, because most of the time, most of their employees are trying to mostly do...
Thoughts About The Mayo Clinic Social Media Network: Digital vs. Face-to-Face Networking
For over a decade I’ve been part of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (MCSMN) Community, initially as a student, then as a contributor, and finally as an advisory board member. During this time, within the social media domain, I have had an opportunity to write a...
Stump Haiku
Mossy, broken branchNo more extension for you—It’s all a blur now! One thing I like about writing haiku is playing with punctuation: commas, dashes, apostrophes, and exclamation points. Here I am reflecting on the memory of a broken branch. the days of reaching out to...
Philosophy as a Serious Game
I just read a great paper written by the philosopher Gavin Ardley and published in 1967: The Role of Play in the Philosophy of Plato. (Sorry, it’s behind a paywall.) In the paper he discusses how important play—as a sister to seriousness—is for several philosophers,...
Mistakes
During a recent burst of playing, my cat Roo, now one-and-half years old, threw his Hello Kitty toy into the air, after which it unceremoniously landed in his water bowl. Hello Kitty playtime abruptly ended. Now, was this cat-throw a mistake? No, at least from Roo’s...
My Week’s “Reading Blob”
Here’s what I’ve been reading this week (I call it my "Reading Blob."): The New York Review of Books. This is a weekly pleasure. The essays are so well written and they make me aspire to write better. Also, I always learn something unexpected.Writer’s Forum. This is...
Blogging vs. Journaling
I post a blog every day. I also write a journal entry every day. What’s the difference? The difference is I put the blog post out into the world. A blog post is an act of creation, a journal entry is an act of reflection. They both have value as writing habits. The...
Photosynthesis Haiku
Reach, reach skyward trees! Capture: Photons, CO2 We need oxygen. I am not sure how acceptable it is to use a full colon in haiku—but then again, it is my haiku.
Reading Haiku, Seeing Photography
In the book The Haiku Handbook, I ran across an interesting quote: We must read Ippekirō’s poems for the brilliance of his images, the humanity of his observations, and the depth of his feelings for the objects and events he records, as we read—or should read—all...