brain-scrambly

Six twelve-hour shifts a week in the ICU. That's my life (or lack thereof) this month. My friend, Ashley, took this picture the other day, and labeled it "brain scrambly"--I couldn't have said it better myself! I just hope I keep loving it as much as I do right now and that my eyes don't get permanently stuck like this...

Bean Town: Day 1

Today is day one of my family rotation in the rural (with Super Walmart and McDonalds) town of Benson, AZ. After work yesterday I picked up Anna and we cruised East on I-10 to Benson where we crashed in the Sahara Motel. Felt like our honeymoon again because we haven't been back in a motel-like residence since. We should do trips like this more. After a quick night Anna was up by 5:00 am so she could make it to her day with her preceptor at St Joseph's Hospital back in Tucson. We'll see each other again on Saturday night.

So I love Benson. More specifically, I love Exit 299, Skyline Road. I spent most of my youthful Spring Breaks and summers exiting onto this dusty road winding to El Rancho de las tortugas where Grandpa and Grandma Hansen live. So I'm excited for this next month where I can see them more often. After clinic today I rode my bike up the long hill, against the wind, to their house. All sweaty and dusty, I spent the evening with them, winding down after a fun day.

In the morning I introduced myself to Dr. Mayberry. He has a brother who is also a doctor. They both run the San Pedro Family Practice, which also houses a couple PA's, some nurses, MA's, an office manager and other house staff. It's a full house, with barely enough room for a skinny medical student to squeeze in. I followed Dr. Mayberry around to see his morning patients, trying to pick up his style. He's a no-nonsense, straight-talking kind of guy that likes to work. So the day flew by! After lunch I started seeing patients. The theme of the day was joint aspiration. Two knees were aspirated. I watched. I love procedures. This morning I wanted to do diagnostic radiology. But after spending time with patients again, I want to specialize in interventional radiology.

Feels like a different life out here, wifeless. But it's a good time to ponder the blessings of living in the good old U S of A with the Southern Pacific line chugging along parallel to town. Life always seems simpler in small towns with old men always saying they get by by doing "what the wife" tells them to do. There is wholesome goodness here in Benson, you can feel just talking to those who live here. I think families understand the inherent dependence on each other when you live away from big cities. The dependence is there simply because you spend more time together. It's nice...but I don't think it's nice enough to convince me and Anna to move anywhere with a population less than 500,000. Tucson is pushing the lower limit as is :)

Miss you bird!

Pick up your sticks

For some reason I've been thinking about Africa all weekend. I don't know why. But I am remembering a man, on a bike.

Four years ago while driving through pouring rain in a remote region of Ghana, our van hit a villager riding his bike. He was transporting sticks for firewood. After coercing our Ghanaian driver to return to the accident scene, we unloaded from the van to offer the man first aid. While I was wrapping the man's road rashes with gauze from our medical kit, our Ghanian driver began berating the villager for his stupidity in attempting to share pavement with a car. What I saw next was a beautiful expression of human dignity. The villager humbly thanked us for treating his wounds. Then he picked up his sticks and rode off into the rain. Instead of calling his lawyer (which is not an option in a third-world country anyway) he picked up his dented bike and broken sticks and moved on. I hope I don't forget this. I hope I can pick up my sticks to ride on into the next storm in life. Turning the other cheek is a powerful expression of quiet dignity. What does it take to ride this road. Whatever it takes I'm sure that man is out there, still on it...

I want to go back to that sometimes, just me and Anna and a nation of happy humbleness. No things, no money, no real material luxury. There is family, relationship, laughter, soccer and well-forged memories. Sometimes I missed that recipe of contentment. And then I married Anna and she brought it all back. From Ghana to Holladay to Tucson. But we do need a little practice with soccer still. When we score, I know we'll hear the villagers of Kun Kundi Yilli cheer for us!

It's in the air...

That sweet smell of early summer sweat....gotta love this time of year :)

Restore and Research

Anna mentioned last night today is the 180th anniversary of the restored Church. Someone, sometime, somewhere once said that each invention, including the TV (created in Provo, UT), was inspiration given to aid in the spread of the Gospel. I believe this. I can't believe that what humans come up with is original to us terrestrials only. It has to have celestial input as well, whether we see it or not. Power plants, computers, telephones, neon signs, cars, X-rays, satellites, cell phones that vibrate. These are some things that give me daily wonder. Really, how does a cell phone vibrate?

Restoration is like research. Truth revealed, again and again. Nothing new really, except to an individual. And if true, it all points to Christ. So, in honor of today I wanted to bear my testimony of the joys of research. I know that time spent learning brings me happiness because it's a divinely endorsed activity. I know Christ lives and He wants us to know this. So he has provided us with the Holy Ghost to inspire us with ideas of how to reach Him and help others reach Him. Sometimes it's tough. Sometimes it's hard. Some days I feel I make no progress. Like today, I put the leftovers in the tupperware with the cake leftovers. I bet Anna thinks some things I'll never learn :) But we should keep trying daily. In the call to battle of one of my favorite researchers, Lewis Thomas:

"Keep them at it I say, keep them working, bring in more of them, crowd them together in the deepest water, way beyond their depth. Goad them into swimming into each other, sputtering new bits of information each time they touch, losing themselves in a high surf of metaphor but each time regaining their feet for a new try. Sooner or later something will come of it, something like knowledge, new to them, new and surprising to all the rest of us."

We'll learn. There's method to all this madness in the world, and it's to get us exposed to the key bits of info that will let us know of Christ, whether through satellite TV broadcast on TV, getting pass-along-cards from a member next to you on a plane, attracting visitors through power-plant-powered Christmas lights at the Temple grounds, or from vibrating cell phones activated by those Home or Visiting Teachers. Long live researchers. Long live...Robin Hood.

by the way, in our research for truth, if you listen to an audio book, can you tell someone later you've read it?