by Rachel Sally

The Great Pumpkin

“Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to.
I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy.
Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.”

—Linus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

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by Rachel Sally

Quarter Century

What they don’t understand about birthdays and what
they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten,
and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and
three, and two, and one…

Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion
or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden
dolls that fit one inside the other,

each year inside the next
one.

—Sandra Cisneros

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by Rachel Sally

Build Union

“You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time.
People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time.
Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.”

—John Lewis

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by Rachel Sally

Black Lives Matter

“Our bodies are too precious,
and you are here now, and you must live—and there is too much out there to live for,
not just in someone else’s country, but in your own home.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

To my future Black patients,

I am in my infancy as a doctor and I have already failed you in too many ways. I write this here, now, not to wallow in unproductive guilt or justify and defend myself, but to use the sharp sting of hindsight to orient myself for the future—to become a better doctor, person, and force for change.
I will be trusted, one day, to advocate on behalf of you. This is a priceless gift.

I will do better to not only educate myself, but I will advocate and stand in solidarity with my Black, Indigenous, and Latinx colleagues. I failed to do this when I didn’t sign NYU GSOM BALSA chapter’s letter with clear, well-researched demands for the administration of our school to be more anti-racist and dismantle white supremacy. My reasoning doesn’t matter: I failed to join my voice and add my privilege in the very most minimal way. I won’t let this happen again. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Racism is a public health crisis and we must treat it as such.

Black lives MORE than matter. Black lives are cherished and beloved. Black lives should be treated with care and tenderness.

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by Rachel Sally

Loveliest of Trees

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands above the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A.E. Housman

On the banks of the Tokyo Bay moat in the Hamarikyu Gardens.

The Heian-jingu torii on the banks of the Lake Biwa canal, Kyoto.

Along the Kamo River, Kyoto.

Early morning stillness at Fushimi Inari. Kyoto.

The absolutely sublime Takase-gawa, Kyoto.

The courtyard of the silent patisserie, Zen Kashoin. Kyoto.

The light forest in Teamlab: Borderless. Tokyo.

An intricate pavilion in Biwon (Secret Garden) within Changdeokgung Palace. Seoul.

Flashing lights and late-night shoppers of Myeongdong, Seoul.

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