{"id":63560,"date":"2026-03-13T07:19:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=63560"},"modified":"2026-03-13T07:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:22:27","slug":"medworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=63560","title":{"rendered":"Medworld"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Imbolc and the Moon of Tides<\/p>\n<p>Friday gratefuls: Scans. Their news. Wind, speaking. Tara. Jordan. Aorta. Prostate cancer. Trump. Iran. Mark. Mary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Rene Good. Alex Pretti. Say their names.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Sparks of Joy and Awe:\u00a0 Writing<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wildwoo-four-of-vessels-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-63250\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wildwoo-four-of-vessels-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-420x639.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"148\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wildwoo-four-of-vessels-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-420x639.jpg 420w, https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wildwoo-four-of-vessels-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter-744x1132.jpg 744w, https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wildwoo-four-of-vessels-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 148px) 100vw, 148px\" \/><\/a>Kavannah: Groundedness. Yesod.\u00a0 \u00a0 Yesod is about establishing oneself in reality, refusing to rely on comfortable illusions.<\/p>\n<p>Tarot: Four of Vessels, Boredom.\u00a0 A current difficulty. Cancer thoughts+Fatigue+Back pain=low mental energy. Not boredom, but lassitude, a close relative.<\/p>\n<p>One brief shining: Another whap across the forehead. Increased metastatic disease. Latest PET scan. So many tests. Medworld can consume life, spreading beyond its confines and colonizing the day-to-day. I don&#8217;t want that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The steady, slow beat. Since last May.<\/p>\n<p>With five diagnostic procedures in less than two weeks, their reports, it is as if I live in Medworld.<\/p>\n<p>Medworld is not the day-to-day world. It&#8217;s a world of white coats, big parking lots, expensive machines. A world dominated by regimented time: show up a half-an-hour early.<\/p>\n<p>Hallmarks of big science. Sophisticated, intricate machines.\u00a0 Acolytes of the white coats to run them. Take off your shirt. Any metal in your pockets? Lift your legs.<\/p>\n<p>Followed by the abstruse report:\u00a0Widespread osseous metastatic disease is substantially worsened from 1\/28\/2026, with numerous new lesions identified. Means, uh-oh.<\/p>\n<p>Turning, turning this new information. Wondering, again, about dying. About new treatments. How will I respond to them?\u00a0 The critical factor at this point. Moments. Projections. Moving away from today toward a bed-ridden, supportive-oxygen dependent patient. Loss of agency. Who will be by my side?<\/p>\n<p>Winching myself, one ratchet at a time, back. To the present. Where I have no bone pain. Where I am weak, yet mobile. Where I can still write. Where I live my non-Medworld life.<\/p>\n<p>Stuck. Sometimes. Forgetting that Medworld supports, is only adjacent to: walks in my backyard. Making supper. Laughing with the Ancient Brothers.<\/p>\n<p>I push it back. Not repressing. Rather. Putting those thoughts in Medworld where they belong. Why? Medworld can only slow the coming of the scythe, not prevent it. As a doctor on NPR said, &#8220;The death rate for each generation is still 100%.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Writing. Friends and family. Marriage. Death. Episodes of a life. The final days for me are not yet.<\/p>\n<p>Only one episode.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imbolc and the Moon of Tides Friday gratefuls: Scans. Their news. Wind, speaking. Tara. Jordan. Aorta. Prostate cancer. Trump. Iran. Mark. Mary. Rene Good. Alex Pretti. Say their names. Sparks of Joy and Awe:\u00a0 Writing &nbsp; Kavannah: Groundedness. Yesod.\u00a0 \u00a0 Yesod is about establishing oneself in reality, refusing to rely on comfortable illusions. Tarot: Four &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=63560\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Medworld<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4394,127,4317],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-phase","category-health","category-shadow-mountain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63562,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63560\/revisions\/63562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}