My, my, time flies. My last post on this COPD topic was ten years ago next month--where did the time go, and what has changed in my perspective since then? Or, for that matter, the world's perspective?
First of all, I have just hit a somewhat magic milestone--54 years since I was first diagnosed with emphysema, and told that, at best, I had a 20 year forward life-expectancy at that point. Well, harrumph.
Having no clue what emphysema was, or its prevalence, my first foray to the library (in 1970 , there was no WorldWideWeb) revealed the shocking and disturbing news that this was a terminal, albeit malingering, disease for which there was no known treatment. Further, that the last ten years of the progression would be marked by essentially becoming an invalid, bound by the constraints of insufficient air to breathe--slowly suffocating, as the article described it. Years later, the nation saw glimpses of that denouement with Johnny Carson's agonizing last few years.
I had three young daughters at home, and I'd been an active mountaineer in both California's High Sierra and the Colorado Rockies where I was then living. What? How can this be? What might I do?
Over my lifetime, I've now had the privilege of meeting and discussing reactions for many people who have received unexpected and unwelcome bad news.
First, there is shock and disbelief. Me? What? How? Why? This is the rude awakening, the AWARENESS phase, which kicks off a nearly predictable set of reactions.
Right behind awareness is DENIAL. "Bull****. Can't be true. No way, not me."
Then, ANGER. "What? Why me? Dammit, I have other plans, big plans, This is an insult (or worse)"
Many then start what's called BARGAINING. "Well, if that's true, maybe I can . . . "
More visibly, DEPRESSION sets in. I still recall the day that my wife at breakfast said something to the effect of . . . "you know, you're a really fun guy to be with, or at least you were. I'd like you to start acting positive, again, STARTING RIGHT NOW." This wasn't with regard to my emphysema, but instead to months after a debilitating injury from which I didn't expect to be able to walk again. But DEPRESSION can be a deep pit, and once you fall into it, it is hard to escape in my experience.
Finally, ACCEPTANCE. "Okay, dammit, this is the situation. No escaping it. Buy in--it's the real deal"
********
So there is a bit of preamble to say, YUP, I went through all those phases with the emphysema news. That fueled my desire to learn more about the disease--who gets it, why, and what might be done.
I found a creative way to get appointed at a tender age to the incipient Colorado Air Pollution Control Commission, the week after the monumental 1970 USA Clean Act was passed, and the First Earth Day was celebrated.
The information I learned on that Commission was astounding, not least in regard to the political sand economic winds that control and thwart many if not most health concerns. I also figured out a way to use "new tools" to understand where, when, and why this disease occurs, and what possible options exist.
And that gave me renewed perspective on how people (even supposedly well-educated and learned people) can become entrenched with their own biases, never mind the 'facts' as they might be construed.
For a time, I became a zealot, which quickly turns into becoming a pariah, as perceived by more reasonable (or less actionable) types. I managed to garner headlines in the Denver Post, which I thought was an honor until I realized that it just makes one stick out, as in the Japanese Mogura Taiji game, which became popular in the US as "Whac-A-Mole"
That led to being replaced (fired, if you will, and replaced by a high-pedigreed well-respected conservative who agreed fully with Governor John Love's pathetic non-action pro-business plan that he carried into Nixon's administration as the first Director of Energy).
And, then, I seemed to 'get well'--at least well enough to function adequately, and I concluded that my zealot days were done--time to move on.
And that period lasted for decades, until I met Warren Muir one early morning in Davis Masten's kitchen in Portola Valley. I'd never heard of Muir, nor he of me, but Davis was on my MediaX@Stanford's Advisory Board, and also chair of the White House Business Roundtable. He thought the two of us should meet, but he had no particular topic in mind.
I asked Muir the obvious question for any ex-mountaineer--"Are you related to John Muir, the famous environmentalist?" I'd already become close friends with Gifford Pinchot III, whose grandfather with Muir and Teddy Roosevelt had promulgated the National Parks idea, and founded the US Forest Service.
Muir's answer was an infectious laugh--"Yes, he was my great-uncle"
Muir didn't go on to describe his own career, which I now know to be stupendous. "Executive Director, Division of Earth and Life Studies, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, National Research Council, Washington, D.C; Warren has served under three U.S. Presidents and is the recipient of multiple honors and awards including the Environmental Protection Agency's Outstanding Service Award." Wow, been there, done that!
Muir was "in town" to see the Katy Börner NSF exhibit about graphical information that I was hosting at Stanford, and he asked me why I had elected to sponsor the exhibit. I said that I had been interested in these types of graphical representations since my days in Air Pollution Control, when I used them to find some causal relationships for emphysema. He expressed surprise, and pressed the question, saying, "what did you find?" As I told him, his eyes widened, and he said, "I found exactly the same thing, four years after you did." We were thus bonded, and it encouraged me to do further reflection.
I don't have time in this post to explain, but that led to creating this Blog, for which I was enthusiastic but didn't reach a wide audience. I did write a chapter for my "Early HP Days" memoir https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Denied-Charles-H-House/dp/130086429X and even applied for a couple of research grants via UC Santa Barbara and Yale, only to discover that they would expect me to fund the grants, not receive funds from them. Ah, well. . .
And then I got COVID in March 2020, and started a wholly different path, that today begins to interweave with this COPD story.
So, a very long pre-amble here, to tell the 'current version' for which I had the good fortune to present at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023 for their Global Health Initiative. The story actually is getting more interesting!
Stay tuned. The next post is not ten years away.
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