Ultrasound Part 2

We are now at 12 weeks 4 days. Here is the ultrasound we had done today. I could watch this all day, can tell this little dude is going to be awesome!

Leia Mais…

Ultrasound

Went to the doctor and found this little dude swimming around in Mel’s stomach :). Enjoy!

Leia Mais…

Some time has passed since Prop 8…

I just finished watching 8: The Mormon Proposition, a documentary film written by Reed Cowan. It was hard for me to watch for a number of reasons: misrepresentation of the church, use of propaganda (they make church leaders look down-right villainous), and a one-sided argument. I recognize that advocacy-docs are notoriously bias, but this film had a chip on its shoulder. Googling Reed Cowan informed me that Reed Cowan was formerly LDS and he is gay. I can understand his passion for this project since the church’s position on homosexuality has affected his own life. But I digress, I don’t want to discuss the film (I think it did harm for its cause, at least in my mind). The film elicited some thought about the issue, an issue I haven’t talked about for a while. I want to express how I feel now, and how that contrasts with how I felt 3 years ago.

When proposition 8 was being lobbied for in CA, I lived in UT studying at BYU. The leaders of the church, local and higher, urged me and other LDS students to get involved in the debate and support Prop 8. I was obedient. I used the internet to express my opinion and got into a few heated debates. After getting ganged up on a few times, I got frustrated. I wrote one final blog post on the matter and haven’t really talked about it since.

Since then, a lot has happened in my life. I left Utah, spent some time abroad, and now live in upstate NY. Most importantly, I have had some time to let my thoughts and feelings develop. Ideas shared during the debates have had time to sink in, settle, and grow. During this time I changed my mind completely. I now advocate for same-sex marriage. I don’t know when this happened, it could have been during the debates back in 2008 and I was so wrapped up in the discussion that I didn’t realize it. It could have been during a conversation with my brother-in-law (whose opinion I value greatly) while trekking through the Himalayas last Summer. I think the church’s stance, and my obedience to it, didn’t allow my mind to entertain this idea and so it took a while for me to realize that I didn’t believe what I was preaching.

In my heart it just seems right that gays should be allowed to marry, and have that marriage respected. It is hard for me to write this since I know a lot of people of my faith won’t agree with me, but since my last post no longer represents how I feel, I felt it necessary to clear the air and clarify where I stand on this issue.

Leia Mais…

Wicked

Friday Mel and I went to go see Wicked at Shea’s Theatre in Buffalo. Mel really wanted to see a Broadway musical so we bought tickets for our 3rd anniversary date.

I went into the play thinking I would enjoy it, but like most things of this nature, I figured I’d be glancing at my watch throughout the show wondering how much more time it had left. In other words, I didn’t think I would love it.

My mind was changed. The production was phenomenal! Everything about it. First of all the music was moving, and the passion with which the actresses and actors sang with was breathtaking. The set and costumes were more enchanting than I thought possible. The story was so fun! I was caught up in it the moment the actors took stage.

One scene was particularly moving. Right before intermission they sing a song called ‘defying gravity’ which is by far the best song in the show. The buildup to the song was perfectly executed and when Elphaba gets on her broom for the first time and is lifted into the air the light,fog and other special effects combine with great vocals and instrumentals to bring even a skeptic such as myself to tears. And the crowd’s reception of that performance was unlike anything I had seen or heard before. Truly marvelous.

I left the show feeling like I had left Plato’s Cave (where I spend my whole day reading two-dimensional medical textbooks) and could now see the world a little better. I love when a good piece of art makes you feel that way. I am now a fan of musical theater and already have plans in the works to see Les Miserables next February.

Leia Mais…

Finding Balance

I am on Spring Break, although Spring seems to have missed the memo. While the weather isn’t cooperating I am enjoying some precious free time during my first year of medical school. The year has been wild. It’s no joke that medical school keeps you busy, that’s a good description of the experience. Too busy might be better, insanely busy may be better yet. In this post I want to write about different ways I have tried to stay balanced this year in the hopes that as I write this I can explore this idea of “balance” and better gauge my own sense of it.

Balance is a relative concept. It has many factors involved, our genetically-influenced personalities and our environments which include experiences we choose to encounter and others we don’t. Balance changes with time as our focuses or even our personalities change. There are different ways to balance. Some people have to leave each day feeling balanced, others can go on stretches where the focus shifts one way or another, both sides equaling out over the long run. Here’s how my year has gone.

Last summer my balance was shifted in favor of a more relaxed lifestyle with far too much free time. At the time I was in Thailand filling my days with shopping trips, online games, and trips to the beach. I was having a blast, but my hard-wired ‘busy-body’ self was getting antsy. I needed things to do that would make me feel more productive.

In August I started medical school. At first things were easy to keep balanced, the first course was constructed in a way to give us a lot of free time which I used going on long bike rides, exploring sites around Rochester including Niagra Falls, and spending quality time with Melanie. These were good times.

The next course was a little more difficult. What changed most was the weather. Rochester winters are harsh. It seems like it snows every day and your body starts craving sunshine. I think I wouldn’t mind the winter so much if I had developed snow-related activities to enjoy. Unfortunately (probably due to my southern California upbringing) I never did, and I spend most of my free time watching TV with Melanie. Since I wasn’t getting as much physical activity as I usually do I tried experimenting with my diet. We cut out red meat, then all meat, then all meat except fish, and ended up with a ‘eat-meat-sparingly’ kind of diet (meat being displaced by whole foods especially fruits and vegetables). The diet experiments were actually a lot of fun and I think my body is grateful for the effort.

I just finished the biochemistry part of year one. While interesting, this was a class I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I feel lucky to be at Rochester, without the outstanding lecturing and the time I was able to spend developing clinical skills I very well may have lost my sanity. Even with these assets, however, I found myself spending far too much time in the library and not enough time at home. Melanie started getting lonely, and I was at fault. My life had shifted to the other end of the continuum, not nearly enough free time. My life was suffering for it.

Now that I have a break I am free to analyze how things went, and what I can do once school starts again to better balance things out. I don’t really have any solutions. Here are a few factors involved in my balancing act:

1. One tool I have is volleyball. I have found a group of people who play competitive volleyball at the med center twice a week. I join them every Saturday for a few hours, releasing a lot of the stress accumulated over the course of the week.
2. Another is spiritual worship. I started reading the Old Testament every morning as I eat my cereal. I only read one chapter a day, but I find that I get caught up in the stories and characters and think about them throughout the day. I also take Sundays off (minus a few hours of studying here and there) which allows me to attend church, catch up with Melanie, and participate in various forms of service in the community. These activities remind me that life is more than the day-to-day grind, and I have a purpose in the eternal scheme and things like family and love are of utmost importance.
3. I love movies. I love getting caught up in a good story, feeling the emotions characters experience and learning more about myself and life in the process. Books fall into this category as well.
4. I like going on walks. Sometimes I have the opportunity to do this in the mountains (or woods here in NY), other times I just walk to school or walk with Mel on a Sunday afternoon. Now that the weather is letting up (knock on wood) I hope to get out more and pursue more of this medium for quiet reflection and meditation. Cycling falls under this category as well.
5. I enjoy learning new things. This aspect of my life isn’t very hard to satisfy in my current context.

This list isn’t exhaustive, but by writing it I think I have a better idea of where I am and what I can do to improve. I don’t know if anyone reads my blog anymore, I haven’t given you anything to read in almost a year, but please share your thoughts about balancing your life and maybe we can help each other in the process. Thanks for reading.

Leia Mais…

The Age of Disconnect

We live in the age of disconnect. Cell phones, internet, social networking, technologies designed for the purpose of bringing people together are subtly tearing us apart. (Many readers, who like myself, spend far too much time playing with their smart phone and fiddling on Facebook, are already thinking of a rebuttal to this post).

This epiphany came to me after a four hour long experience with T-mobile’s customer service. In this time I had to re-explain my situation three times as I was juggled between employees, I was called a liar—or told that my wife is a liar rather—and ended the conversation with nothing resolved and my Saturday afternoon wasted. At some point in the conversation I asked the person his name which he said he couldn’t give (yet he had all my information right there in front of him) and I filed a complaint (the only form of accountability I could think of). Once the conversation ended I vented to my wife for an hour and am just starting to cool down as I sit to write this post. Would I have been treated this way if I were talking to this person face-to-face? I’m sure we’ve all had an experience similar to the one I just described.

Studies have shown that a person’s personality changes when they are wearing a mask. My parents would never let me wear masked Halloween costumes and I had to settle for the Batman costume that looked more like a bonnet. Masks are no longer limited to costumes and the new villains are people like telemarketers and cyber bullies.

I watched a really good movie recently called Up in the Air. You may have seen it, George Clooney, 2009 best picture nomination? The main character is one of those old timers who is disconnected the old fashioned way: leaving home on business trips and accumulating frequent flyer miles. His job is to fly all around the country to lay people off. His company has decided to meld into the digital age. A young woman, fresh out of college, spear heads a new development in which the employees no longer have to travel, but instead lay people off through online video chat. Could you imagine being fired by some stranger on the internet?! Now that’s disconnect. I won’t spoil the rest of the movie for anyone (it’s lovely), but thought this transition between the old way of being disconnected and our new way was profound.

Where is our brave new world headed (yeah I just used the title of this blog to cheese-ify this post)? I notice that my online interactions can very easily take a wrong turn as strangers argue about touchy subjects like politics, religion, and basketball (I guess it’s redundant to mention basketball having already mentioned religion). Will the World of Warcraft turn out to be a foreshadow of our future? Or are movies like Avatar or Surrogates better indicators?

Let’s do ourselves a favor and turn these trends around. We can rebuild our social capital by getting to know our neighbors, limiting our time on social networking sites, or giving someone a hug. I tend to believe that small changes, while inconvenient, can go a long way.

 

After note: Melanie called customer service and got the whole mess resolved within half an hour. Does that discredit this whole idea? Haha, at least I feel better.

Leia Mais…

Devan’s Stand Up

So, my little brother, Devan, does stand up comedy. He performs with the BYU group Humor U. Some of my loyal readers (yeah I don’t have any of those, but I like to pretend I do) may remember that I posted one of his first shows on my blog a couple years ago. Now he is much better! So for your enjoyment here are a couple of his shows. Hope you like them as much as I do. And ladies, he’s single and I need a new sister-in-law ;).

Leia Mais…

GOMERs and GOMEREs

I just finished reading The House of God by Samuel Shem, MD. The House of God is a medical satire about a group of interns’ experience during their first year of residency. The book follows Dr. Roy Basch, a ‘red-hot’ medical doctor fresh out the the ‘Best Medical School’ and starting his residency at The House of God, a prestigious hospital in Boston affiliated with the Best Medical School (Harvard, I assume). The book was referred to me by a friend in medical school who said it’s the most popular medical novel written to date. Expecting to get some fresh insight into what life is like as an intern, I approached this book with anticipation and excitement. In fact, Mel would tell you I looked at every used-book store in Nepal hoping to find this book. My enthusiasm quickly turned to confusion and even distress as the author paints a very cynical picture of medical education. Roy and his fellow interns are tortured with being on call every third night (and at times every second night), working 100+ hour weeks, being tortured by GOMERs and LOL in NADs, and slowly realizing the idealized physician’s life they all desire is turning out to look more like a nightmare than a dream. As these young doctors become disillusioned they lose their humanness, break down (one jumping to his death from a hospital window), and at one time or another become despicable.

I want to focus on one of the terms this book introduces, the GOMER. This derogatory term is defined by The Fat Man to mean “Get Out of My Emergency Room, a human being who has lost—often through age—what goes into being a human being.” It describes elderly people suffering from diseases such as dementia, whom the interns must care for in unflattering ways such as disimpacting hard stools. They can’t die, and are constantly abused by the medical staff. For example, one the the rules in The House Of God is GOMERS GO TO GROUND, meaning they fall out of bed. The interns use this rule in order to TURF their GOMERs to ORTHO or NEURO by setting the hospital beds up at dangerous heights. The treatment of these people portrayed by this satire is disturbing.

During my undergraduate education, I worked part-time as a certified nursing aide at two different nursing homes. One man for whom I provided care (I will call him James) was a WWII veteran, learned Chinese, and taught Chinese literature at Brigham Young University. In his old age dementia had left him miserable. He relied on CNAs for everything, and many CNAs resented him. James’ dementia made him violent, especially at night and he would punch, kick, spit, and do anything he could to prevent the aides from helping him. I remember one aide who even resorted to hitting James back. She lost her job. Whenever James’ call light went off, the aides would do their best to ignore him, or try and persuade another aide to go see what he wanted. Shem would call James a GOMER.

I became a ‘go-to guy’ when it came to James’ care. James liked me. I think he started to like me the first summer I grew a beard. A gruff man himself, James would say “you and I need a shave” with the biggest grin on his face. I found that James was rarely resistant towards care if I sat down and talked with him for a few moments before attempting anything. An avid reader, James enjoyed showing me what he was reading, and I would occasionally show him what I was reading. I would sometimes greet him with a ‘nee hau’ or begin by throwing his boot, which he hated, across the room to which he would applaud. He loved to tell me about his travels, about his family, and other such things. While his mind was ill, his soul was not. One day when I was struggling with my faith, James bore his testimony to me of the Book of Mormon and of the Restoration. James’ testimony is one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I have had in my life. James became a dear friend of mine.

The purpose in sharing this is to help encourage better understanding. James was treated as less than human because of his dementia. I discovered that James is a beautiful person who enriched my life greatly. People yearn to feel loved and respected. Treating people like GOMERs or GOMEREs (the feminine version of GOMER) is not acceptable. A lot of people have inherited a tough situation in life. I think one of our duties as human beings is to help each other out and encourage better understanding. Let’s think again about how we and others treat people like James.

Leia Mais…

Doctors’ Diaries

I received wonderful news this week. I will be attending the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in August as a first-year medical student! As Melanie and I research activities and sights in New York, where we are going to live, how we are going to pay for tuition, and other logistical necessities, I continue to find my mind wandering and worrying about what lies up ahead. In an effort to demystify my future I decided to watch a PBS NOVA special called Doctors’ Diaries. This program follows seven doctors starting from their first day of medical school at Harvard. The program does a fantastic job at showing the different students’ personalities, and allows the viewer to get a glimpse of what it takes to become a doctor and what being a doctor entails.

Some aspects of the documentary are disturbing. As an intern, talking about the stressfulness of being a physician, one doctor says he’s “become this person that [he] doesn’t particularly like.” Another says “I’m gradually just getting more and more tired.” Several of the doctors go through a divorce or two (or three). A wife describes the time her husband is able to give her as a “shell” of the man she married. I also watched an intern connect with her patient before heart surgery and then, after six hours in the OR, pronounce that patient dead. These are some of the things I fear.

One doctor says, “In my years of practice now I’ve seen all the range of extreme tragedy, extreme joy. I can’t think of anything that’s grounded me so much in my life as being a doctor.”

There are also many uplifting aspects to the documentary. My favorite aspect is the film subjects’ interaction with patients and other doctors. These students and interns genuinely care for the people they are helping. One doctor develops a way to get eyeglasses distributed to rural areas of China. It is refreshing to see genuine care provided by all the physicians documented since this type of care is the reason many (including myself) go into medicine to begin with.

“You’re going to be okay. We’re going to take care of you and you’re going to be alright.” Being able to say (and mean) this is what satisfies one physician in the documentary. “I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”

Leia Mais…

Nepal Video

So I used Windows Live Movie Maker for the first time and made this:

Enjoy!

Leia Mais…

Nepal

View Full Album

I am now back in Bangkok (which feels like home… strange). For the past month I have been in Nepal spending time in the Himalayas. Here are some notes on my trip:

We arrived at Kathmandu airport on Tuesday, March 29. The airport was a worn-down dust box. Guards stood around holding automatic firearms, employees begged for money after helping lift baggage onto a cart, and the line for immigration seemed to drag as slowly as it possibly could. Not a good first impression. We arrived later that day at our hotel in Thamel (a tourist area inside Kathmandu).  The trip didn’t start out well. One easily gets a headache in Kathmandu from the incessant beeping of cars and motorbikes warning pedestrians of their whereabouts on the absurdly narrow roads. Dust seeps into every physical space possible, a nightmare for your lungs. By the second day I found myself clinging to a toilet, puking in the dark after unwisely eating a cold pizza from the local bakery. The symptoms of food poisoning lasted the next three days including a ten hour van ride across the winding road that leads to Pokhara. We stayed an extra day in Pokhara to allow my symptoms to subside before we started our trek.

The first day of the trek was fantastic. We left the dust, blaring horns, bad hygiene, and unsafe food in the city and replaced it with good exercise and gorgeous scenery. The trek was great for our physical well being--our party being in dire need of conditioning. The first day we walked for 8 hours and ascended about 1000 meters of steeps stairs. At the end of the day we were utterly exhausted. This was the first of many physically taxing days. We spend our nights in tea houses. The tea houses were great, they include a room with a light, food available for order (we got used to eating primarily potatoes and eggs), and even a hot shower. Far from roughing it, we enjoyed each others company, read, played cards, washed clothes, and made friends from all over the world. I feel closer to every one of my family members thanks to these wonderful places.

Eventually, after over a week of grueling effort, we made it to our destination: Annapurna Base Camp! I immediately found a cozy place to sit high above the moraine where I watched Annapurna 1 for over an hour. Here, I experienced relaxation beyond anything I had ever felt before. I sat listening to the ambient noise. Just in front of me I could hear the occasional sound of a rock tumbling down the cliff. High above me I watched the slow, hypnotic movement of avalanches thundering down the mountain. I was reminded of nature’s subtle power. Mel and I read a chapter of the Book of Mormon together. Sitting Indian-style on a patch of grass I watched birds playing in the strong winds rushing up the cliff. Their grace translated to my peace. To me, that spot is sacred ground.

We stayed a couple days at the top and then slowly descended back down to Pokhara, ending our two week trek. We then spend another week in Pokhara and Kathmandu where I found that if you don’t eat cold pizza you can find delicious food that is inexpensive. I now sit here in Bangkok feeling utterly refreshed. What a great get-away!

Leia Mais…

The Reformer

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it."

– Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Leia Mais…

Analyzing life’s fears…

In five months I will sit in on my first medical school lecture and officially begin my professional education. This thought is both exhilarating and terrifying. I am excited to take my education to the next level, to apply my scientific background to the art of practicing medicine. I am also terrified at the idea of eventually cutting somebody open, allowing people to put trust in me knowing their lives are in my hands. Can I, with good conscience, cut somebody open and have the confidence that they will actually come out better in the end? At times these thoughts overwhelm my mind, causing me to doubt the reasons I am going into the well-protected field of medicine.
This is not the first time that these types of thoughts have bounced around in my head. When called to learn the Hmong language I often found myself doubting I would ever actually understand what was spoken, or be able to articulate with power what my heart desired to communicate. At Brigham Young University I often doubted my abilities when a subject would come slow to me, or when I would feel the impending doom of an upcoming exam. I feel similar feelings when I think about the future, having a child, and being expected to raise him well. Life is scary and often we measure ourselves as inadequate when standing in front of our challenges.
I would guess everyone feels this way, nobody excluded. Even the heroes of history are human like you and I. I think on the continuum between gifted and maladroit, most of who history has deemed ‘geniuses’ lie somewhere in the middle. I read a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell’s thesis is that the most successful people are not gifted in the sense we usually think, that challenges aren’t somehow less difficult for them. Geniuses, instead, are molded by their environments, chance playing more of a role than God-given talent. Gladwell describes the rule of 10,000 hours. He says that people such as Bill gates or the Beatles all had to practice for at least 10,000 hours in order to reach the status they achieved. Bill Gates had a unique opportunity to get many hours of computer programming experience at a time when even college students studying computer science didn’t have the type of access Bill did. The Beatles played all-day shows for years, getting hours upon hours of stage experience before they finally made it big. While I question whether or not the hour amount can be quantified, I agree with Gladwell that the environments these people created for themselves led to their success. What sets these people apart from others isn’t necessarily talent, but their ability to practice and get valuable experience.
In a book I am currently reading about surgery, Atul Gawande says,

The most important talent may be the talent of practice itself. K Anders Ericsson, a cognitive psychologist and expert on performance, notes that the most important way in which innate factors play a role may be in one’s willingness to engage in sustained training. He’s found, for example, that top performers dislike practicing just as much as others do. (That’s why, for example, athletes and musicians usually quit practicing when they retire.) But for more than others, they have the will to keep at it anyway.

I find these ideas fascinating. In my own experience, I rarely feel that I have any sort of natural advantage over my peers. What has separated me from others is my willingness to work, to study for hours on end, to read books and get involved in activities relevant to my field of interest. At times, I do feel like I understand things better than many of my classmates, but attribute this to my experience reservoir and not to natural ability. While many people go off during the summer and sell security systems I work long hours at a nursing home. While many students use their free time to do anything that isn’t related to school, I follow a reaction’s progress I started in my lab or read a book about evolution and medicine. Another key to success is to expend energies on things that are of the most value. An undergraduate must work, so why not find a job relevant to your field? An avid reader must read, so why not choose books relevant to what you will study this semester in class? By choosing activities of high value, I have learned some valuable lessons in patient care, critical thinking, and have made countless boneheaded mistakes in the process. Experience is what produces greatness. This is the key to my successes in the classroom and the most relevant tool I will bring with me this year as I begin my first year of medical school.
Worthy challenges seem impossible when first confronted. At one time the Hmong language was impossible in my mind, but I just spent the last week in the mountains of Thailand conversing freely with hilltribe people. Everything I have accomplished in my life, from pen tricks and guitar licks to scoring well on the MCAT, is due to the fact that I don’t ever give up. Once you recognize that the impossible can be overcome, you will take on bigger and more intimidating challenges. In this way greatness is accomplished. I believe I will become a great physician someday and will heal many people, but there is much to experience before that day comes.

Leia Mais…

SCUBA

Even though I want my blog to be more focused, I will still have the occasional picture post of fun things Mel and I are doing. This is one of them :)

We spent the last week in Koh Tao (Turtle Island) in Southern Thailand. This is a remote backpacker’s island which offers the best value scuba diving in the world (or so I’m told). I took the PADI open-water diving course and am now certified! For anyone who hasn’t been diving yet the experience is thrilling. It is an amazing feeling to breath underwater, find a neutral buoyancy (a sensation unlike any other), and explore the intricate world hidden in the coral reefs.  Not only was the diving phenomenal, the island itself was a small paradise. It offered me some of the best food I’ve eaten in Thailand, great volleyball, a great little used bookstore, an oil massage, some pleasant reading spots, and a much needed getaway. Enjoy these pictures.

 

 

 Cheers!

  

 

 

 

Leia Mais…

A More Focused Approach to Blogging

The new year has come and gone. During this time of year many people reflect on their lives. This leads to people adjusting their focus and resolving to change a few things.

It’s time for a change in OUR BRAVE NEW WORLD. Up to this point my posts are schizophrenic in nature, lacking a common theme. A good blog is predictable, the reader knows what he or she may find and comes back because the topics interest them. The blogs I add to Google Reader all have individual themes written by doctors, philosophers, theologians, sports nuts, etc.

In short, it’s time to renovate this bad boy and I want your input. Listed below are my favorite blog posts I have written. I feel good knowing these posts exist online and reflect my thoughts. I wish my blog only contained posts like these. Read these posts, let me know what you think, and give suggestions on what you may want to hear me blog about.

• Same-sex marriage (if you haven't yet, read this!)
• Science v. Religion: Which should we turn to?
• Taoism and me
• A Short Essay on Altruism
• How to love people using psychology

Leia Mais…

Variations on a Theme

It can be quite frustrating when people refuse to accept science (or anything for that matter) because they fear it may not coincide with their religious beliefs. I could sit here lamenting for hours about how infuriating these types of people can be. I won’t. Instead I would like to explore why these people frustrate me.

I just graduated from BYU with a bachelors of science. During the coarse of my studies I have had the opportunity to study a variety of subjects including molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, physiology and human anatomy. Each subject is complex in its own way, with mysteries waiting to be unraveled by the inquiring student. The more time I spent with a subject the more its usefulness was magnified and the more profound its insights became. Religious people should be able to relate to this since the same thing happens with the gospel. (LDS people see Alma 32).

Understanding this, how can somebody dismiss a scientific theory without even understanding the science it is founded on? Surely not in good conscience! Obviously I am referring to evolution here, but I don’t think I need to limit it to that. It is bad for someone to dismiss anything purely out of fear stemming from not understanding. In the end, this type of attitude will damage the religion it is trying to protect.

I am almost finished reading Your Inner Fish and a line inspired me to write this quick post. Neil Subin says, “when you see these deep similarities among different organs and bodies, you begin to recognize that the diverse inhabitants of our world are just variations on a theme.” This was profound to me, but only because I have invested in discovering some of the “deep similarities” that we have with other living things.

In order to understand the conclusion you must first see the supporting data. Please, before you dismiss evolution, do your homework.

Leia Mais…

Things I Am Thankful For:

It’s Christmas time, a time where we visit family and friends, give to others in various ways, and spread Christmas cheer (yeah, I just watched Elf :-). With the spirit  of Christmas resonating in my soul, I want to take a moment and express a few of the things I am most thankful for. These are in no particular order:

• My wife Melanie: Mel makes my life better in ways I could never have imagined before I met her. There was a line in “500 hundred days of Summer” which really struck a chord in me when one of the characters was asked whether or not his wife was the girl of his dreams. He said no, and added that he is glad she is not because there are so many things about his wife that he could never dream of and now cannot do without. That sums up Melanie for me. I have no idea how i got along without her and I am thrilled every time i discover more things about her. She makes life fun and I love her for that.

• Brigham Young University: Gordon B. Hinckley gave a talk once called “The Widow’s Mite.” In it he discusses how blessed we are as BYU students to study for such a low cost, and how he fears more than anything that we take this experience for granted. I am about to graduate from BYU with a phenomenal cache of resume points and experiences which will prepare me for medical school. I have been blessed to have a full-tuition scholarship and tons of grant money which have enabled Melanie and I not only to graduate debt free, but with a little bit of savings as well. What an awesome University; I definitely plan on giving back in some way a few years down the road.

• My family: I laugh to myself when I think about all the fights I used to get into with my parents in high school. The problem back then was that i didn’t communicate with them. I am grateful that this is no longer the case. I call my parents all the time now, confide with them about my problems and fears, and receive great advice. They are great in-laws for Melanie and will be great grandparents (when that time comes ;-). Devan has always been close to me and I consider him my best friend. Nothing like going to one of his comedy shows, watching a good Lakers game, or giving him a hard time about not being married. Emily is one of the sweetest people in the world, up there with Mel. I’m glad she is my only sister. Freeman and Gavin are growing up fast. They are both going to do great things in life, both in the Church and in the world. Family is awesome.

• Melanie’s family: I couldn’t ask for a better mother- or father-in-law. Peter is stored in the same compartment in my mind as Indiana Jones. He is constantly looking for adventure and tries to bring us along for the ride. I have been most impressed with his testimony of Christ’s gospel. Many little things about the way he acts stand as a witness to me that he knows Christ. Luckily, he instilled much of this into Mel’s personality as well. One word that describes Toni is compassionate. She seems to live her life in the constant service of others. When i met Mel something that stood out to me was her unconditional love for everyone. When I met Toni I discovered where Mel got that from. Both Mel’s mom and Dad are dear to me.

These are a few things I am grateful for. I encourage everyone to take some time and express gratitude for things in your life.

Leia Mais…

Your Inner Fish

So My birthday was yesterday, and my lovely wife knew just what to get me: a stack of books! I couldn't wait to start reading one of them called Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin a paleontologist and professor of human anatomy at the University of Chicago's medical school.

I got through the preface and the first chapter before I went to bed and have loved it so far. In essence the purpose of the book is to describe structurally how we have evolved from fish. Dr. Shubin was one of the people who discovered a fossil representing an intermediate form between fish and land animals with limbs and necks. This fossil is called Tiktaalik and was unearthed in the Canadian arctic. What impressed me about the first chapter was that Dr. Shubin was able to predict where he would find this fossil based on how old the dig site was (approx. 375 million years old). That is great evidence supporting evolution. Scientists are able to predict where to find transitional fossils and sure enough, they go out and find them.

I'm sure this book will fill my head with many more insights worthy of blogging about so stay tuned :-)

Some other books Mel got me are:

The Language of God by Francis Collins (I read this one over the summer and am excited to read it again)
Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller
Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller (his lecture really left an impression on Mel and I)
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman (I read half of this over the summer and am excited to finish it)

Cheers.

Leia Mais…

Pythagoreans and Beans

We are covering the presocratic period right now in my science and civilization class. Today I learned something about the Pythagorean brotherhood that I thought was too funny not to share. The Pythagorean's legacy includes beneficial discoveries such as mathematical ratios and musical theory. It is also rich in the ridiculous. For example, one of the rules of the Pythagorean brotherhood is to not eat beans (my little brother Freeman and my sister-in-law Marissa may see this as wisdom). They believed in reincarnation and the bean was thought to be a living reincarnated soul. This belief came about and was reinforced by the bean's effect on the body. You know what I'm talking about right? Once eaten you can feel the bean moving around in your stomach. Occasionally this living entity will even lead to small bursts of flatulence :-). Awesome belief.

Leia Mais…

Evolution: What About God?

Melanie is taking the evolutionary analysis class at BYU right now and she had me watch this video with her for a homework assignment. I think it is worth watching for any thinking Christian.

Leia Mais…