The Gum Tree for 2005 September

Thu Sep 08 13:28:27 MST Remembering:

This was a good last week. I flew to Houston Thursday night after doing some surgeries here in MO. There were few hotels with vacancies because of Katrina--so I got set up in a suite at the Marriott. It was not so bad on the wallet because of a Medical Student Interview discount.

Then on Friday I flew out to Utah for the funeral. The funeral was lovely. It is funny; I learned recently that when you have cataracts then light gets bent funnily through the eye. The condition is aggravated at night so that indicator lights on the dashboard can stretch up and down so that it looks like you have a big long red/orange light from the top of the visual field down to the bottom. A few people use black electrical tape to blot out the light on their dashboards--pretty smart I thought.

Then--an epiphany--Grandpa always put black tape on the dashboard. Some people were heavily critical of that--(*clearing my throat* MOM)--who personalized it as JUST ANOTHER example of his passive-aggressive-compulsive-disorder tendencies (and therefore and example of Dad and me--Damn those Walch Men Traits!). I found out at the funeral that G-Pa had cataract surgery not too long ago--and his were mature brunescent thick cataracts were taken out. G-Pa just wanted to drive without huge lights clouding his vision. After his surgery he didn't need glasses for seeing far away and the night glare, starburst, ghost glow condition cleared up.

Funny how things clear up when you have the right perspective. I think that after this life we will all have a more clear idea of each other--as well as ourselves, and we will have some pretty startling revelations about why we did some things. Sure some of those things may be because we have weaknesses, but our earthly diagnoses (e.g. those annoying labels that SOME people place on us) are probably not quite true.

That is one thing I learned this weekend--we need to put some things in perspective. I guess that is just my clever analogy of how we try to remove the mote out of our neighbors eye while having a beam in our own.

I also learned that we need to give each other a lot more slack in terms of their behavior or personality quirks.

Finished Theodore Roosevelt's Autobiography (quite a big book) and starting on the Autobiography of Frederick Douglas (I read 10 chapters yesterday--riveting).

I also found out that my interviewer at UT-Houston (an exceptional Heart Surgeon--Dr. Frazier and VOLUNTEER Professor) was an avid fan of Theo. He commented that T.R. didn't quite realize how great a man he really was. After that he said that I had nothing to worry about in terms of getting into UT-Houston. We shall see.

Fri Sep 09 09:50:33 MST Red-dotted Chimps, we are.:

Filling out secondaries and I got this prompt.

Ohio State:

18. Please define altruism and provide an example or two where you exhibited altruistic behavior in your past activities. (600 words or less)

Personally, I thought this was a pretty useless question, so I answered the question the people should have asked. This is what I wrote:

After reading this essay prompt I wanted to resolve something in my mind so I started asking questions, and before long I got into a heated debate with myself. This is how the debate went. I asked: what is the meaning of altruism? Isn't altruism the unselfish concern for others? Well, yes it is but can anybody really be unselfish? Isn't everything we DO something that, in the end analysis, fulfills our own selfish desires or self-centered nature? I suppose that is what most philosophers have said. Saint Augustine, among others, wrote that the best we can do is live a life of enlighted self-interest.

Well, how about today; I mean we are much more enlightened in our modern rational thinking today than back in the dark ages; right? I don't think so. Look at our whole civilization and the foundation of modern life. Adam Smith said that there is an "Invisible Hand" moving all transactions in business that usually results in the good of all parties. That Invisible Hand is the self-interest of each person involved in the transactions that occur. That pretty much rules out altruistic action. Furthermore, we are taught in Economics class that there is no free lunch, and therefore we must work to prevent the starvation of ourselves and those of our family, clan, or social class.

Wow, perhaps it is not too late to apply to business school. I really should learn how to make my lunch, right? Additionally, I need to make sure that I make a big enough lunch in order for my family to have all the lunch they need. Isn't that altruistic? Well, no. You are still working in your own interest. What if I worked for the lunch of a complete stranger who I will never see again, and from whom I will never get remuneration? There is no free lunch; that is what the first law of modern economics says, and that includes other people who receive goods and services from you. I suppose that I never exhibited altruistic behavior in that case.

On the other hand, the Judeo-Christian tradition tells us not to worry about lunch. Take no thought as to what you shall eat or wherewith you shall be clothed. Consider the lillies of the field: they toil not neither do they spin. All that we need will be provided. I am like the college student who has his room and board already paid for. All I have to do is study and learn to do the REAL work that I was sent here to do. What is that work? Well, it is the work of changing my nature to BE good, and furnish my mind with lasting principles. I am to BE good to others, whether they are my neighbor or a complete stranger.

I suppose to work altruistically, I must BE altruistic. The being gives way to the doing of altruistic works. My whole life can be exemplary of altruistic behavior if I am altruistic, every word and deed. I may fall short of the ideal of altruism, but that is why I am here at school to learn to develop these attributes. The Greek philosophers were first to nod to this principle and they named this attribute caris. The early Christians also advocated this principle of being or becoming good; that was once know as Charity. Charity of today is made up of money and the act of giving it away to some benificent end, and says nothing about the motive of the giver or the gratitude of the benefactor. Once altuistic change happens in myself, I then have the ability to "alter another,” and that is the literal meaning of altruism. The purpose of my work here is not to learn how to get bigger and better lunches, but rather to learn how to BE charitable, or altruistic. Perhaps I will not achieve that ideal anytime soon, but that part of me seems to be winning the struggle in my mind.

P.S. The title is in reference to an altruistic study of Chimps where red dots were put on their foreheads and they were given mirrors to see if they would try to rub the dot off the mirror or their own heads--altruism.

Fri Sep 09 09:58:30 MST No Attack Ever Fed a Hungry Child:

I just remember something Billy Clinton said during the 1996 Debates.

The many comments of criticism of Pres. Bush after the Hurricane reminded me of that.

(4) Fri Sep 09 10:05:10 MST Comments???:

If I don't get any comments from the last three entries then I will know that nobody, except me, is reading this weblog. I guess I deserve that though.

(1) Wed Sep 14 07:35:58 MST Thanks:

...for the comments. Sorry I have not updated so often. I don't have internet except at the office, and I have been given some more responsibilities here at the office.

Can you believe it that they have asked me to do some of the landscaping? I have been working from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday. At least I don't have to brush-hog the 50 Acre field. Last week somebody accidentally cut off a manhole cover with that beast.

I sympathise with John and his work schedule.

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