Live Strong

So Armstrong is tired of fighting the charges and that automatically implies guilt... the people who believe that must never have been in a position themselves where they were oppressed by an overwhelming "authority"; an authority that does not play fair, have ulterior motives, unscrupulous in their means to further their personal agenda. An authority with a total lack of transparency and accountability. Until you have been in that position, and experienced for yourself the emotional turmoil, the constant paranoid, the frustration, and the gradual degradation of oneself that is induced through the drama. The damn-if-you-do-and-damn-if-you-don't situation. Until you have been there, you are in no position to make that judgement. When you go against such authority, you lose a bit of yourself bit by bit. You hope for their goodness only to be disappointed when they take advantage or refused to play fair. Subsequently, you feel you must sink to their level in order to get by, and you give up a bit of your principles. Suddenly, you realized you have really two choices, either be false to yourself and follow their way, or stay true and quit the fight before it takes too much away from you because misery loves company, and those oppressors only will bring you further down with them if you continue to engage them. So I say I continue to support Armstrong. I believe in his innocence until proven otherwise by an unbiased panel, with principled investigators and prosecutors.

Patience with flatulence.

My patient sat uncomfortably across from me in the tiny booth. He began to fidget, he started to stammer, I can see goosebumps forming on his arms, the tightening around the corner  of the lips. I thought it may be his guilty conscience acting up as I forced him to confess that he has not been wearing his hearing aids.  It was not until I got up to leave the booth and heard the resounding fart and the ensuing sigh of relief that I realized all this time he was holding back, and that ultimately I was spared. My faith in humanity is restored. Gosh, I love audiology.

Common goal

Please help me understand this: How can you condemn someone for being a member of the elite, claiming them to be out of touch with the common folk while throwing enthusiastically your support behind a party that is doing it's darnedest to retain the wealth to a selected few on the highest strata of socioeconomic ladder? By and by, when is looking out for your fellow human and striving for your own success mutually exclusive? You condemn socialized programs because it spread resources to "undeserving" people, "robbing the rich and giving it to the poor", but have you ever consider how much resources is already wasted because the poor continues being worst off, the middle class continue to bear the blunt of being stuck in the middle.

There is no perfect system, one party is not necessary better than the other, but I think we can at least all sit down and agree on the fundamentals.  We need to stop demonizing one another.  I think it is great that everyone has passion about what they believe, but that passion doesn't necessary precludes us from sharing ideas in a cordial manner.  We need conversations, we need to act at each other's sounding board.  It is ok to disagree, but disagree with the facts, not the person.  There are principles, and then there are ways to actualize them.  

Also, regardless of what station you are in life, there has to be some sort of equalizer. If you are in a good place, that equalizer serves to remind us that we can fall anytime, and that we can equally come back from it because we were there once.  For those who are downtrodden, that equalizer gives hope that they too have the opportunity to be better.  Ultimately,  I think it is better to implement a reset button we can control than to allow things to get completely out of hand and implodes. We must move away zero sum game and return to win-win scenarios.

My sitcom

There have been times in my life when I wondered to myself, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if my life was some sort of situation comedy, and I have amazing writers feeding me incredible lines, and I leave my audience happier and inspired." And in a way, I kind of have that, because most of the things I have said, the thoughts I have had, they are the result of the people in my life. My team of writer

s, my editors, producers (if I may be so crass) are in fact my many friends and family, teachers and mentors. Whether I realize it or not, recognize it or not, you have all influenced me and made my life more entertaining than most sit coms. I laugh, I cry, I love, I dance, I sing, I remain curious and imaginative all because there are individuals out there who continue to explore with me, expand the horizons for me, and allow me the room to express. So, thank you.