More Tucson Thoughts

-A few Saturdays ago I rode home from the hospital and passed 9 yard sales, in 4 miles. It's an exercise in discipline for me not to brake, spin my bike around, and hit the pedal back to the tables of possible treasures. This makes me feel adolescent because I stand up to pedal faster, leaving my backpack flapping from shoulder to shoulder, rapid-fire. But I didn't stop...I think because my mind caught hold of a thought and held onto it like angel food cake.

How many other countries have yard sales embedded as a social norm? I can strike off Israel, Brasil, Ghana, France, Mexico, and Egypt because I've been there over weekends, never seeing yard sales.

-Over the past couple years a few physicians disclosed their salaries to me. They also disclose offers they've received to relocate. One physician was offered seven figures to pick up and move from Phoenix to a practice in New York. But the physicians don't move for money. And they all commonly say the same thing: "Enough is enough. You get to a point where you are comfortable and you don't need more." Just seeing how much Peyton Manning signed for ($96 million for five years) made me wonder why you rarely hear athletes say, "enough is enough." They are always bartering for more.

-I finish my neurology clerkship today. In one lecture we learned about treatment for Alzheimer's. The current treatments do not cure, but prolong the inevitable--a form of mental life support. If it were me being treated, would I want to prolong the inevitable? My knee-jerk reaction is to answer, "no." This probably has to do with imagining the strain I would put on loved ones. However, rarely do I see loved ones less angelic than when they are caring for their Alzheimer's loved one. No judgements here, just observations.

-I read this in my textbook: "Essential tremor often responds briefly but dramatically to ethanol consumption, which may be a useful diagnostic feature." I always find it interesting when medicine and The Word of Wisdom intersect in a most perpendicular way.

-Racism. If someone criticizes the church for withholding Priesthood from those of African descent, and it's a criticism based purely on race--with no subjective bias against the church--then they should always be willing to discuss, at the same time, how America withheld the right to vote from those of African descent until the 15th Amendment. And if they truly have no church bias, they won't object to the comparison, for sake of discussion.