Melissa Shafer

St. Luke's University Health Network AVP of Government & Community Relations. Wife. Mom. Lover of naps. Opinions are mine.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

Stateside, a gas station. I drank a frozen blue beverage too quickly, and was struck down by a punishment this entire nation knows, and accepts, and has named.

The drink is called a slush. Ice, sweetness, and a blue that does not occur in nature. The day was hot. I was thirsty. I drank like a soldier at a river.

The pain arrived in my skull like a war horn.

Behind the eyes. Above everything. Total. I gripped the roof of my car. I may have made a sound.

"Brain freeze," said the cashier through the door, with no urgency whatsoever.

It has a NAME. The affliction is so common it has a household name, like a cousin.

"Tongue on the roof of your mouth," called a man at the pumps. He did not look over. He prescribed the remedy mid-pump, casually, the way one mentions weather.

I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. The war horn faded. The healer nodded at his pump, finished, and was gone in a Chevrolet.

In my land, punishment follows crime by way of courts and seasons. Here, the sentence is instant. Drink with greed, and the ice strikes the mind directly. No trial. No appeal. Perfectly fair.

And here is what moves me. EVERYONE has felt it. The cashier. The healer. Children. Elders. An entire nation united by the same small lightning, all taught the same cure, all passing it on to strangers at gas stations, free of charge.

You cannot fully distrust a country once you know it shares one pain.

The freeze does not punish thirst. It punishes haste.

I finished the slush slowly, like a scholar. Blue tongue. Clear mind.

Then at the door I forgot everything, drank deeply, and was struck down again.

"Tongue, hon," said the cashier, without looking up.

Discipline is a journey.

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

Ahhh!! I’m so bummed that I wasn’t in the building today! @nglwithkylie you have every business being in that building. @GovernorShapiro GSD + FAFO = 💯💥

[Jaxon White @Jaxon__White]

I just spotted Kylie Kelce — host of the popular “Not Gonna Lie” podcast, wife of former Eagle’s center Jason Kelce, and PA native — exit @GovernorShapiro’s office in the state Capitol.

Perhaps for a podcast interview? 👀

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

@StephenJ_Caruso I can’t tell if this is a joke, but if it’s not, I love potato leek soup!

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

@StephenJ_Caruso 😂

[Music Box Theatre @musicboxtheatre]

Catherine O'Hara & Eugene Levy performing "A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow" from A MIGHTY WIND at the 2004 Oscars🌈💔

[Pennsylvania Women's Health Caucus @PAWomensHealth]

It's #MaternalMentalHealthMonth! Did you know that 1 in 5 women across the U.S. experience a perinatal mental health condition? New moms, you're never alone. Help is always available! 💛

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

From now on, it’s “a thousand apologies…”

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

“I’ll be 10 min late sorry!!!”

-ashamed
-fragile
-unreliable

“A thousand apologies. The relentless slog of time has overtaken my faculties.”

-powerful
-commanding
-honest

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

@gunsnrosesgirl3

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate ... General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere... love actually is all around.”

[Defiant L’s @DefiantLs]

Her reaction was priceless lmao.

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

Loved the entire SNL50 Concert, but this song … as soon as I heard the first few notes I was transfixed. I’ve never seen her sing this live before and it was wonderful!

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

@michaelcrowley Great article

[Josh Reynolds @JoshReynolds24]

Holy shit…

This new Birds Super Bowl hype video may just be the greatest of all-time

Goosebumps & teary eyes. LFG.

[NFL Memes @NFLMemes]

Commanders: *Long, calculated 20 play drive to score 3 points*

Eagles: *Gives the ball to Saquon Barkley once*

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

@kathleenmadigan In other words… :-)

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

Happy Thanksgiving 🤣🦃

[Hy Bender @hybender]

Wild turkeys actually 𝘤𝘢𝘯, but not so much the farm turkeys "freed" by WKRP

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

Great day at the #ChamberAM! @GLVCC

[NBA Slime @TerryFranconia]

A random town in this map is going to become the face of the country next week and I'm thinking it's gonna be Quakertown or Lansdale

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

Leo and I want to recognize #WorldMentalHealthDay with the hope that we can one day #EndStigma for with Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder conditions. I recover out loud so no one else has to struggle in silence. Never be afraid to ask for help! ❤️

[Mueller, She Wrote @MuellerSheWrote]

"Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote. Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have." 3/

[Melissa Shafer @MrsMelShafer]

@wildforcongress YES!