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| Just got back from a lovely wedding. I and everybody else seemed to have a wonderful time. I have to say, I learned a lot tonight. Y ou tend to see people differently when you pay attention to their wedding. When E was singing her song (flawlessly) I saw Ay getting teary eyed. That made me teary eyed as well. I was sitting next to Kev, so I turned away so he wouldn't notice. The lyrics moved me and also let me know how D and A really feel about each other. He being her hero and she his heroine. At least that's what I felt. I don't know, sorta sappy, but I liked it. I'm very happy for both of them. The best man speech and the slide show also showed me different sides of these two. I always knew Dave was a stand up guy, but to see really how much he did for his family and his friends gave me an additional perspective to the man. Ay's vows were very touching. There was so much honesty and emotion there...again I was teary eyed. Throughout the night I was watching all the interactions between all the couples in our crew and I felt so fortunate to even know such a loving fun crew. As a special side note, Tina was our driver for the night. With 3 semi drunks in the car, having to drive BACK to get stuff we left, AND getting lost, she Never for an instant lost her cool or raised her voice. I was extremely impressed. It's little things like that that tell me so much about a person. She's a winner, and nothing phases her. Maybe I'm reading to much into just a drive home, but I think I'm right. This is what I learned and I'm enriched to know all this now.
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| I've been meaning to blog about this. Last weekend Ro asked us, "What's you passion?". It caught me off guard. I've always felt that life is about passion, but when she asked me this...I was in the passenger seat, and I thought...hmmm, what is my passion now? For the next 5 minutes all these thoughts raced through my mind. Lately, I've just been living for the weekend. Hanging out, having fun, maybe a little golf...but really those were just means to destress from work. But was any of that something I was passionate about? Absolutely not! We had just been to a recital of people...well, most of them, that were passionate about singing. Some were amazing, some not as much...but I truly appreciated those that loved what they were doing. I'm no expert, but when each person sang, I would close my eyes and listen. I don't know, but to me I could feel the emotion in some of them. They may have been off, or it was a language I didn't know, but when it was good I could feel it. It warmed me. There were a couple performances that I had no idea what the lyrics meant, but I was moved. Anyway, my point is that my friends question was a life changing moment to me. You know how every now and then you take stock of your life? That's how I felt. Thank you Ro, cause you got me thinking. I need to focus on a passion. I can't set things aside until the time is right or when things are stable...life is about passion. I've always felt that, but with the daily distractions of life, bills, buying a house, planning for the future, having fun the next weekend....I've been pushing aside what truly would make me happy. I know...you're wondering, what? I don't really know either. I do know that it's something creative. I miss art class. Where you can just grab any kinda paint or clay you want and create. That does make me happy and I am passionate about that. I have so much paint that I've bought, but still haven't touched. Last weekend inspired me. Thanks!
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| Ok, I was suppose to blog about our anniversary next, but this story infuriates me on so many levels. In summary, this South African female athlete completely dominated in her track event, only to have her biological gender challenged by other countries. She was then tested and prelim tests show that she may in fact be a hermaphodite and has elevated levels of testosterone. Therefore, they're challenging her gold medal. Externally she's more a female, however, she may have no uterus or ovaries. EVEN if this is true, she's still a female! If you go by this criteria, then think about all the other athletes born with natural advantages, whether it's an excess of growth hormone causing them to be 7 feet tall, or a natural ability to oxygenate their muscles during physical activity, or denser stronger bones for any sport...so many great athletes were born with some physical "advantage"...how is this Any different? Also, there probably many female athletes in the past with similar "abnormalities" that lead to their success. Based on this alone, it's completely unfair that she's being singled out, or that they're even making the argument that she does not deserve to compete as a female. On a human level, this 18 year old just had her world devestated. Imagine being on top of the world, only to suddenly have everybody tell you...and to find out...that hey, you're really not a woman...and by the way you can't have kids...and maybe now she's ostracized or prevented from having a normal relationship with a man. Hopefully that doesn't happen to her, but still this was wrong. Some are saying, she shouldn't be able to compete unless they treat her and bring down her testosterone levels. Fine, but then let's bring down everybody down to normal levels in every way. It's impossible and makes no sense. What's your opinion?
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Semenya-withdraws-from-race-amidst-reports-she-s?urn=oly,188930
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| This past week, a patient of mine gave me a book titled "The Medical Classic of the Yellow Emperor". He recently went to China on an interesting mission. He was part of a 12 person coalition touring the country on a project to push the Japanese government to acknowledge the atrocities they committed during WWII. In Japan, many textbooks have been edited to omit this aspect of history, so the younger generation has no idea. My patient is a math teacher in the US. All students at his high school were obligated to read Hiroshima. I read it in high school also, and recommend it. However, he heard his students discussing the book, and how they all felt that the Japanese were victimized by this. He agreed that Hiroshima was horrible, but felt that the students should be taught about all perspectives. Specifically, about the actions of the Japanese government and military. Few of the students had ever heard of Nanking and similar horrors. He contends that the current Japanese government tries to portray to their young that the Japanese were on a mission of survival for resources, and was forced to go to war, yet sufferred immensely from the nuclear bombs. However, the govt refuses to recognize the unnecessary torture and killing of millions of Chinese and many other asians. I spent an hour talking to him, and could have gone on much longer...but work called. I suggested he use the internet more, go viral, with images, etc to start a grass roots boycott among the younger Chinese generation. If even 10% of China boycotts Japanese goods over this...they will get serious attention.
Anyway, he was grateful that I had helped his medical problem with a combo of western and eastern medicine, and found this book in China at a store renowned for being a longstanding historical center of medical knowledge. Apparently, it's the oldest classical text of Chinese medicine, written 2 thousand years ago! I feel very guilty admitting this, but as I was driving home, I glanced at the sealed book....and in the context of having a small apt, with lots of "stuff", for a split second I thought "hmmm, wonder how much I'd get on ebay for this?". Then I thought, you know, this nice man lugged this book from China from you. It's probably the nicest gift you have gotten or ever will get from a patient. How could I think of selling it? For $20, $40? No way, I'm keeping this. I tried reading it, and it may have given me a headache, but I'm still keepin it and will keep tryin to read it. I hope he succeeds in his goal someday.
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| Spent all morning cookin Thai Noodle salad with K for Marc's BBQ. K cancelled her trip to Europe for her cousins weddin, cause her back was acting up again. Marc's parents house in Pinole was so much fun and fits perfectly with his attitude and sense of family. It's the kind of house you can entertain all ages, especially kids...easy to see how Marc has so much enthusiasm and zest for life after seein that place. The back yard is probably unique in America at least. There's something to see or do at every turn and corner. He organized some fun games for us, starting with a relay race with popsicle passing, beer chugging, and jello "thumb" balancing. Next was a water balloon toss that ended up being an attack on our host. Then we had a spelling bee that showed how much "spell check" has affected our abilities to actually spell on our own! My favorite was the Actual water balloon toss. I've always liked water balloons. We ate tons of food and hung around the fire pit. My only complaint is that we had to go home! I coulda stayed there all night playin games! | | |
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