Harvard Medical School (Posterized Photo)

Harvard Medical School (Posterized Photo)
Originally uploaded by randubnick

Yesterday I drove into Boston for a doctor's appointment, but it turned out that I had the appointment time wrong and was an hour early. The weather was great, so I grabbed a snack and a coffee to go at a local Starbucks and used the time to take a walk. Just down the street, I came across what seemed to be a park at first glance, but it was really the quadrangle for the Harvard Medical School. It seemed very open and welcoming, so I decided to have my little picnic on a bench in the quad. Then I walked around the gravel path and enjoyed the beautiful lawn, the oak trees, and flowers. There are wonderful buildings on three sides of the quadrangle, and so of course I took some photographs. (Tonight I cropped this image from one of the best photos, then used Painter to posterize it and add some color overlay to the sky.) Well, we have all been thinking about health care, and so I thought this image would be a good image tonight, especially in view of President Obama's health care speech. Yesterday I got to thinking as I enjoyed my little excursion. I was struck by the words on the building, quietly marking the what is considered the best medical education in the world. I was also struck by the openness of the quad, a little park that anyone in Boston can enjoy. American ingenuity, know-how, and education created the Harvard Medical School; a generosity of spirit created that welcoming garden in the quad. And I was thinking that I hope we can find a way to combine the best of American medicine with the best of our compassionate democracy. . . .