The Walk

The walk was slow, the walk was hard, but never did I ever sit down

Once you stop, the momentum’s to stay, and find your place in the ground

One leg, one leg, one foot at a time, I promised I never would quit

Because in the end you can either be a man or just another young boy talking shit

So move I did, for years at a time, discovering stability and strength all around

So when the time came and my legs did not work, I was able to conquer the mounds

To the ones that walked with me I owe all my life, but to the man who carried me I owe more

For he’s the one who gave me my strength, and lite the fire that burned in my core

For the weak I offered my hand, and to the blind I offered my eyes

To the young, hope, to the old, comfort, and my ears I offered the wise

The trail was hard and not always straight, I was broken along the way

In the end was it worth it? I surely think so, looking back I value everyday

The walk was slow, the walk was hard, but never did I ever sit down

Once you stop, the momentum’s to stay, and find your place in the ground

Beginning of the Clinic

I started my clinical rotations at the start of the month and it's been quite the change. I took my boards, and then two days later I was moving from Erie to Youngstown to start rotations. I've lived in Newark (Ohio), Erie (PA), and now Youngstown. They are all blue collar towns and I've enjoyed seeing a different side of life.

The most valuable thing I've taken away from the first couple weeks is that I'm incredibly fortunate to have had a supportive family growing up. Youngstown currently has a heroin problem and it's sad to see lives that are ruined by a drug. It's a difficult thing seeing drug abusers in the hospital because once we get them stable they typically return to the same lifestyle and repeat the process. Their family's have to separate themselves from the addicts because the addicts tend to steal everything that they have and use their own families to support their habit. My attending has been practicing medicine in the area for 35 years, and he said "Drug addiction is the hardest thing to treat in medicine. I'd rather treat cancer or Alzheimer's than drug addiction."

Another experience which has been interesting is the residents we've followed around. There are only two American residents in the program. The rest are foreign medical graduates. It's been fun learning about their cultures and watching how they interact with patients. The foreign medical education places a greater emphasis on the history and physical exam than the American medical system. In the United States we rely on labs significantly more than our foreign colleagues.

I'm enjoying the town and experience so far. The town is hard, the people are friendly, and many of them have a sense of pride in being from the area. The lifters are strong. Everything I missed about the state is here and I'm hoping I can continue to learn about the city while I'm here.

The New Religion

The main premise of this article comes from Ian King's book Barbells and Bullshit.

Last night I got on Facebook saw a post that blew my mind. Ian King was offering one of his eBooks for free. I was pumped because this normally costs around 30 dollars.

I started reading this book and I was shitting my pants because the premise of his book was exactly what I've been thinking about for some time. He talks about dogma and its various forms. He states that society used to blindly follow a mind set because the "the Bible used to tell me so," and now society has a new bible, Science.

People will blindly follow any paper that comes out. They incorrectly apply science to their own point of view and think because something has statistically been shown it is fact. This simple minded state will continue to exist for some time. Because they've read one Fox News or Huffington post article they are immediately an expert on the topic. They KNOW that they are correct and will argue their "proven" perspective furiously, even if it defies common sense.

Par of this could be due to the format of the education system in the United States. We are fact learners, we are "scientifically" based, and we've killed art. We've killed intuition and we've accepted the notion that if something works for you and it's contrary to science you are wrong.

Science is a wonderful tool. Sadly, the vast majority of people in the United States have no clue how to use it. Science tells you what happened based on a set of parameters. You hope that the data is valid, and you should be more willing to accept that it's valid based on how many people are capable of reproducing the data given the parameters.

Next point. Professionals are dying. We had a professor that told us the difference between doctors and nurses. He said nurses are technicians. They follow guidelines and they are not supposed to use intuition. Doctors use intuition, experience, and knowledge and use it as an art form blending it perfectly together. They will fail, and they will be held accountable, but they will do their best. That is a high ass standard, but there is nothing else I would rather have. Teachers and doctors are in the same boat. We are over regulated and overly influenced by money. The students and patients best interest are not taken into account. The title given to this is evidence based medicine and standardized testing. Professionals need to be able to modify their practice in order to best suit their client, student or patients, needs. As soon as you start basing everything in your life off of statistics and numbers you are dead. And this is why I believe science is the new religion.

Lifting and Diet:

I've been training for a power lifting meet for about 5 weeks now. The meet is on April 6th and I've been using Paul Carter's Strong 15 program. Which is pretty much a 9 week strength peaking program. I struggled mentally because I cut down to 3 training days a week. I'm buying in and I don't want to evaluate the program until it's completed.

My weight is fine. I've cleaned up my diet especially since lent began. The one thing I will say about Islam and Christianity. Lent and Ramadan (sorry if spelled wrong) are phenomenal times of the year. They allow you to refocus. As much as I love to say we should be doing shit right all year, which we should, it's nice to have the ability to start a new habit. These seasons I think are better than New Years because they have start and end days. It gives you a goal to start a good habit or end a bad one.  Typically by the end of the period of time it has become an ingrained part of your daily life.

Quote:
Time is the profound magnifier. If you are making a mistake it will become magnified with time, and if you're doing something right it will show with time.