This year marks the 75th annual National Dog Week. It barks off this week running Sept. 19 through Sept. 25. 
This year’s theme is “Man’s Best Friend”, which is a great description of our relationship with dogs. It is a chance to get back on track and show how much you truly appreciate your dog this week.

National Dog Week was founded in 1928 by Captain Will Judy, a former publisher of Dog World Magazine and a dog judge. He created National Dog Week to educate all dog owners in their responsibilities to their pets and to their communities. The origin of “man’s best friend” is alleged to have come from a closing argument given by Sen. George Graham Vest. Vest was representing a man whose dog was shot and killed by a neighbor. In his closing statement, Vest gave what has become the famous “Tribute to the American Dog.” The speech was so powerful that it won the case. Here is an excerpt from this famous speech that truly shows how much a dog means to his owner, “The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.”  Definitely take the time out this week to give your dog the treatment that they deserve.

So this week do something extra nice for a dog. If you don’t own a dog, you can always make a donation to a no-kill animal shelter.

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Brad Meltzer is a nationally known mystery novelist. He was written more books that I have been able to read. There is another quality that Brad and I share in common – other than we are both males. Brad has been a Superman fan his whole life. One Brad’s appreciative fans sent him a miniature statue of himself dressed for work and a second with Brad dressed as Superman.

Brad is by far my favorite novelist. Superman is by far my favorite superhero. So when I look at this picture I get reminded of 2 people I admire in the same picture. All of us have favorite people we follow through life. I hope you have learned as much from your favorite people as I have from mine!

During the past 12 months’ conversation locally has been directed toward an increase of use of opiates for recreational purposes. Heroin is a part of the totals listed below. Because it is not regulated one batch can be more potent than another batch and users can use the same volume of the drug and receive very different effects. Prescription drugs do not have that complication because the manufacturing process is regulated.

The Allegany County Health Department presented data recorded by the Western Maryland Region Medical Center over the past three years on non-fatal overdoses:

• 2014 — 210 non-fatal overdoses, with 39 percent being opioid-related.

• 2015 — 291 non-fatal overdoses, 53 percent opioid-related.

• 2016 — 272 non-fatal overdoses, 73 percent opioid-related.

In the chart above which was published in the Cumberland Times-News in today’s edition, we see by the numbers opiate use is increasing. As I have listened to the conversation over the past year I have sought an answer to this question, “What can we do to decrease people desiring to use opiates on a recreational basis?”

I wish I had an answer to share with you. The problem is I can’t think of an alternative to offer people when they turn to substance abuse. I feel they are trying to escape from some reality in their life. I know there are no “quick escapes” from the problems we encounter in life. In high numbers people are trying to escape, and sometimes either intentionally or unintentionally the results are deadly.

Every week I listen to people describe in detail how the illegal use of drugs is tearing their family apart. Family members want the user to stop using. They are frustrated when their pleading does not work. When they employ “tough love” and hold the user accountable for their actions, most of the time the person keeps on using. This happens even when the family tells the person they are no longer welcome in the family home. We pray for the user to see the light, get help, and leave the dependency that drug use creates. This crisis is truly one we must find a way to address effectively or it will take over our society. I am open to hearing any solutions that we can utilize in working toward this goal.

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This has been a long week at work where I have needed to work extra hours on 3 of the 4 days thus far. So as I see Friday on the calendar I am seeing 2 consecutive days of moving at a slower pace and being engaged in different activities than I am when I am working. I think that is what most of us enjoy about the weekend. A break from the routine, a time to renew our energy.

While we are enjoying a different pace for the day, let us also remember to spend of the extra time we have engaged in prayer, Bible reading or other activities that feed our soul. Just as a car engine can’t run without oil, we can’t operate at our best if we are “spiritually rusty”!

Recently our hospital placed new wheelchairs in service. These new chairs are different from the ones I used 20 years with my parents. They have ergonomic adjustments for the person in the chair. They are easier to steer and have built in compartments for oxygen tanks and a pole for hanging IV bags.

I was shocked, I thought all the improvements in wheelchairs had been in the motorized type. I asked the staff that were using the chairs if they liked them. Everyone I asked said they were a big improvement over the previous design.

Often when a product is “new & improved” I am suspicious. But in this case the changes are all changes for the better. It was a reminder to me that just because we have done something the same way forever, that does not mean that an improvement is not waiting out there to be discovered. I hope you are able to discover some improvements that truly make the work you do easier and better!

The picture above is one I found on-line. It illustrates a patient who is being cared for with a ventilator to support their breathing. Working in CVU and ICU seeing patients on these machines happens daily. There are many purposes for having a patient on a ventilator. In some cases, the person’s breathing ability was in decline, and even with the help of the machine we learn that the patient is not helping with their own breathing at all.

Now enters the chaplain. The family informs me that for this patient the next 24 hours are going to be precarious as they wait to see if the patient tries to do any breathing on their own. What does the chaplain do? You might think the chaplain immediately offers prayer. The first thing I do is LISTEN to the family as they recount what happened and how they feel about it. With the additional background they tell me it helps me respond to them with compassion and yes eventually offer a prayer that is custom designed for their situation.

Too often in life the person we are talking to already has their response to us already formed before we even finish what we are saying. It seems like our society as forgotten the art of LISTENING.

Try this experiment, mentally count the number of times your mind starts to form a response before the person you are listening to has finished speaking. I think you will be shocked that do it more often than you realize. But once you realize it, then you train yourself to finish listening before preparing to speak. I am a “motor-mouth” so this was no easy lesson for me. But learning to do it makes me more of a comfort to the patients and family members I encounter.

Last week the hot water flowing from my faucets turned to rusty orange instead of the crystal clear water I am used to. The culprit was my 24-year-old hot water heater that finally rusted through.

I only had to deal with the poor quality of water for several days. I was reminded as I heated cold water in my tea kettle to create hot water, that there are many places around the world where I would simply have to accept the rusty water as “normal”.

I have found myself praying for those in lands where rusty or otherwise unsafe water is a normal day to day reality. Praying for them is a good first start but if I really want to help them I’ll have to find a ministry that is dedicated to improving water quality in places that can’t provide that for their own people. Who would have thought that water in a sink has pushed me toward seeking a new mission?

What daily event in your life has sparked you to work to help others who are less fortunate?

I am choosing the 15^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the USA to resume blog posting. The flag image posted above is from the presidency of the late John F. Kennedy. The words he wrote in the 1960’s still live on today in 2016.

Liberty one of the guiding principles that distinguishes the USA from every other nation. At the heart of our founding, the Founding Fathers, desired to protect each individual’s right to make choices of self-determination that do not infringe on the same right of others to guide the path of their life.

Harming or killing someone because you disagree with them is not self-determination because you are affecting someone else in a way that prevents them from following their desires and convictions. The choice to pray is an act of self-determination that is protected because when one person prays no one else is harmed in the process, unless they are coerced into praying against their will.

In my 59 years of living I have seen many disputes arise over the issue of liberty. Some disputes I have felt are genuine. Others I have felt are a subtle way of one group to control the actions of another group – thus depriving them of liberty.

The best way we can honor the lives of those who died or were harmed on 9/11/01 is to let liberty reign for everyone regardless of whether we agree with what they believe.

I am also struck that in September as we remember the 9/11 attacks and think of freedom, September is also the month when the suicide rate is high for students who feel unaccepted because of their sexual orientation. If am free to be me, then anyone else should be free to be who they are. Contrary to much opinion sexual orientation is not “chosen” in the same way one chooses to wear green pants or blue pants. Our sexual orientation is vested deeply in our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual make-up.

When our nation progresses to a time where people are not punished or ridiculed for who they are, then and only then, can we claim that liberty has arrived for all!