Posts by Calvert F Cazier, PhD, MPH

Several years ago, I was sitting with my father in his living room. It was in the afternoon, and we were just enjoying the moment of being together. We didn’t have an agenda nor were we in a hurry to finish the visit. He was in his early 90s. As part of our conversation, he…

Today was a cold, wintery Saturday morning with a fresh blanket of newly fallen snow on the ground. Anne and I were sitting on a couch talking when she decided to clean a junk drawer that was in the living room. I made a silly or snarky comment about not messing up the drawer that…

I couldn’t believe it when some stranger called me a name, which I will not use but I will simply substitute it with the letter ‘T’. You can decipher the word by filling in the blank “tu_d”. Why would someone call me that name when everyone who knows me is aware that I am a…

Several years ago, my wife and I were in Florida spending time with our family. We were really looking forward to an outing we had planned to the Everglades where we rented a couple of canoes to observe the alligators in their natural environment.   Before leaving basecamp, the rangers gave us instructions and a…

In December of 1967, I was living in the small city of Bergamo in Northern Italy. It was a beautiful place, located in the foothills of the Alps. The people living in this community were friendly and hospitable to our group of young American boys (19 – 21 years old). We were living in a fairly…

I clearly remember one hot summer day that I spent stacking hay with Uncle Quinn, Grandpa Cazier, and a couple of cousins. I was about 10 years old, and nobody realized I was beginning to show symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome. One of my early OCD symptoms involved my inability to walk…

I am embarrassed about my role in this story, but I share it because these types of stories are part of everyone’s life, and they should be shared along with our positive experiences. So, did you read that first line twice? I hope so and thank you. I firmly believe that it’s important to share…