Let’s face it. This has not been a great ten years. The internet bubble burst in 2000. Accounting scandals ended in the bankruptcy of Enron and WorldCom and the destruction of my former employer, Arthur Andersen. We endured 9/11 and the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001, the onset of war in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002. The year 2004 brought hurricanes to Florida and a tidal wave that devastated Indonesia and Thailand. Katrina and the disaster in New Orleans followed in 2005.
Today we are experiencing the aftermath of falling real estate values, the Madoff swindle, and the near collapse of our financial markets. We are dealing with a severe recession, high unemployment and a devastating disaster in Haiti. When will the bad news end?
When things go wrong it’s important to look for the silver lining. As bad as things are, life can always be worse. Ask any Haitian.
Erma Bombeck wrote a book called, “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits?” Well, guess it depends on how you look at things. Sometimes being in the pits is a plus! I became a stock broker in 1999 and was only starting to build my book of business when the tech bubble ended and stock prices collapsed. I didn’t have a lot of clients that got hurt because I didn’t have a lot of clients! The silver lining for me was that there were a lot of unhappy investors out there. That fact and a positive outlook provided me with the opportunity to gain a foothold in the market as a financial advisor. While established brokers were avoiding calls from clients, I was knocking on the door. You could say starting my career in a down market was kind of a lucky break.
Cancer patients deal with bad news and disappointment on a regular basis. It comes with the territory. The first bad news is the diagnosis itself. Then you learn if it is operable or not. Is it in the lymph nodes? Has it spread? Is there more than one tumor? Are the drug treatments working? Can you be cured? Will you still be able to work? Will your insurance pay for all the treatments you need? The list goes on and on. Where’s cancer’s silver lining? I have to say that cancer has helped me appreciate my family and friends and the blessings I have. I am much more keenly aware of my mortality and the limited time I have on earth. I have finally gotten my priorities straight and am trying to accomplish all that I would hope to do with my life. I think cancer has made me a better person and has improved the quality of my life.
I’ve been reading about the life of someone named David Welch, who, at the age of 38, was diagnosed with brain cancer. David passed away a year ago, but he created a website called 38Lemon (named after the age he was diagnosed with a tumor the size of a lemon). David’s journal is inspirational reading for anyone with cancer. He lived for 4 years 35 days from his date of diagnosis and wrote about his life and treatment nearly every day until the day he died. He was an accomplished musician, a successful entrepreneur, a writer and an artist. He had family and friends who loved him. He was courageous in facing his disease and passionate about not giving up on life. He is truly someone who knew how to turn lemons into lemonade.
Yoko and I have had our share of personal tragedy and heartache, but we have come though it all. I think we go through life, especially when we are young, pretending nothing bad can happen. When it does, we are devastated. Maybe we should just expect bad news – like biting into a cherry with a pit – and just be happy we don’t break a tooth. Focus on the fact that life is sweet and savor the moment.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Changing Culture
Yoko and I were watching the AFC and NFC Championship games on Sunday. She has really learned to enjoy American football and gets as excited watching a game as anyone I know. She has also become pretty knowledgeable about the rules of the game and the players. For example, she knows Percy Harvin plays for Minnesota and use to be a Florida Gator (so she likes Minnesota). Her favorite team is Boise State. (She fell in love with them after their unbelievable victory over Oklahoma at the Fiesta Bowl in 2007.) Yoko generally likes college football better than professional football. I think her preference for college football has something to do with the purity of amateur athletics and the fun and raw emotion displayed by young and enthusiastic fans. Football is a part of American culture that Yoko admires.
Baseball is the Japanese national pastime – but Japanese baseball is different from what we play here in America. There is a very funny book call “The Chrysanthemum and the Bat”, written by a friend of mine, Robert Whiting, which describes the subtle cultural differences in how baseball is practiced and played in Japan. The book’s title is a humorous allusion to Ruth Benedict’s classic, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”, a serious anthropological study of Japanese culture commissioned by the US Government during the Second World War. The theme of Whiting’s book is that Japanese culture imbues and colors every aspect of life in Japan, including something as mundane as baseball.
I thought about this tonight only because I am watching football with my Japanese wife, who is upset – not at the violence of American football -- but at the violence and meanness of American culture in general.
Yoko and I talk about “American culture verses Japanese culture” on a regular basis. The discussion is usually triggered by something I bring home from the store (unhealthy snacks), something on television (Viagra commercials during family viewing hours or personal injury attorneys advertising for victims), or something that she observes in my interactions with other people. (I’m frequently accused by my wife of having done or said something that is ill mannered, impolite, or inconsiderate.)
What triggered tonight’s discussion was a new Walmart commercial aired during the football games. A dad, dressed as a clown, jumps into a room where children are attending a birthday party and stabs his foot on a child’s toy. He screams at the top of his lungs and scares the kids away, ruining the party. Yoko understands that this is intended to be humorous, but she doesn’t think it is funny. She thinks it is rather violent and unappealing. I can’t disagree.
Yoko objects to “reality” TV shows, like Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice,” that pit people against one another and challenges contestants to disparage and humiliate each other. Where is the human kindness and Christian values of love and compassion we espouse? She hates the MTV show “Punked”, which she sees as “mean” spirited and has none of the fun or innocence of Alan Funt’s “Candid Camera” or America’s Funniest Home Videos, which she likes. Japanese love slapstick and other forms of humor, but most often Japanese humor is self deprecating. Jokes are seldom directed at someone else.
I’ve been reading a book by the brilliant Charles Munger, Warren Buffett’s acclaimed business partner, called “On Success.” Munger writes about the psychology of human misjudgment and addresses the issue of excessive self-regard tendency. (For example, 90% of Swedish drivers judge themselves to be above average.) Yoko believes that Americans suffer from high self-regard and self-centeredness. That might be true for the Japanese as well. I agree with a lot of what Yoko thinks about American culture, but I sometimes wonder if she realizes she is seeing American culture through her own cultural filter.
Munger writes that “Man’s excess self regard typically makes him prefer people like himself.” Munger concludes that we need to be objective in making assessments about self, family, friends and property to avoid the folly of high self regard. It’s a good lesson for all of us to learn.
Baseball is the Japanese national pastime – but Japanese baseball is different from what we play here in America. There is a very funny book call “The Chrysanthemum and the Bat”, written by a friend of mine, Robert Whiting, which describes the subtle cultural differences in how baseball is practiced and played in Japan. The book’s title is a humorous allusion to Ruth Benedict’s classic, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”, a serious anthropological study of Japanese culture commissioned by the US Government during the Second World War. The theme of Whiting’s book is that Japanese culture imbues and colors every aspect of life in Japan, including something as mundane as baseball.
I thought about this tonight only because I am watching football with my Japanese wife, who is upset – not at the violence of American football -- but at the violence and meanness of American culture in general.
Yoko and I talk about “American culture verses Japanese culture” on a regular basis. The discussion is usually triggered by something I bring home from the store (unhealthy snacks), something on television (Viagra commercials during family viewing hours or personal injury attorneys advertising for victims), or something that she observes in my interactions with other people. (I’m frequently accused by my wife of having done or said something that is ill mannered, impolite, or inconsiderate.)
What triggered tonight’s discussion was a new Walmart commercial aired during the football games. A dad, dressed as a clown, jumps into a room where children are attending a birthday party and stabs his foot on a child’s toy. He screams at the top of his lungs and scares the kids away, ruining the party. Yoko understands that this is intended to be humorous, but she doesn’t think it is funny. She thinks it is rather violent and unappealing. I can’t disagree.
Yoko objects to “reality” TV shows, like Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice,” that pit people against one another and challenges contestants to disparage and humiliate each other. Where is the human kindness and Christian values of love and compassion we espouse? She hates the MTV show “Punked”, which she sees as “mean” spirited and has none of the fun or innocence of Alan Funt’s “Candid Camera” or America’s Funniest Home Videos, which she likes. Japanese love slapstick and other forms of humor, but most often Japanese humor is self deprecating. Jokes are seldom directed at someone else.
I’ve been reading a book by the brilliant Charles Munger, Warren Buffett’s acclaimed business partner, called “On Success.” Munger writes about the psychology of human misjudgment and addresses the issue of excessive self-regard tendency. (For example, 90% of Swedish drivers judge themselves to be above average.) Yoko believes that Americans suffer from high self-regard and self-centeredness. That might be true for the Japanese as well. I agree with a lot of what Yoko thinks about American culture, but I sometimes wonder if she realizes she is seeing American culture through her own cultural filter.
Munger writes that “Man’s excess self regard typically makes him prefer people like himself.” Munger concludes that we need to be objective in making assessments about self, family, friends and property to avoid the folly of high self regard. It’s a good lesson for all of us to learn.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
When Are You "Cured"?
I went to the January Lung Cancer Support Group meeting this week. The meeting had 28 people in attendance and our speaker was Dr. Thomas Kartis, a local thoracic surgeon. Dr. Kartis’ presentation and the medical discussion that ensued made me once again realize how little I know about cancer and how much there is to learn. The discussion was wide ranging but there was one question that came up that I thought was kind of interesting. One of the members of the group asked…is there a cure for lung cancer?
Since being diagnosed, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about having cancer. It is always with me and on my mind. I am living my life today as if there is nothing wrong. I’m in a clinical trial and go for shots every six weeks. Other than that, I am not being treated for cancer any longer. Am I “cured”? Well, if I am not dead and the disease is nowhere to be found, I guess you could say I am “cured”. Will it last? That is an entirely different matter.
Until you have lived 5 years after a cancer diagnosis, you are a cancer patient. If you make it to five years, in the medical world, you are considered a “survivor”. If you die from cancer at any time you are a cancer victim. I am almost half way to becoming a rare lung cancer “survivor” since I have lived two and a half years since my diagnosis. The fact of the matter is that you are never really “cured” of cancer, even if you “survive” for a while.
If you are asymptomatic, that does not mean that there are no active cancer cells running around in your body. Dr. Kartis had a useful analogy to explain the concept of a false negative when thinking about test results: if a mouse in the room is spotted running across the floor it is positive affirmation there is a mouse in the room. We can see the mouse. But if we don’t see a mouse, does it mean there is none in the room?
We can never know if we are ever “cancer free”. My current status is NED – no evidence of disease. What they mean by that is that they can’t find it, but since I had it, we can’t say that it is no longer there. The best we can say is that there is no EVIDENCE that it is there. We don’t see the mouse any longer.
The cruel thing about cancer is that you can be easily lulled into the belief that you are cured. You are living your normal life after treatment, going along your merry way…and then…. BOOM…the other shoe drops and you find you have a nodule or tumor where there was none before. All cancer patients in remission live with the fear that cancer could turn your life upside down at any time. Still, the longer you are in remission the more hopeful you become about the future.
Speaking of the future, I have a three year lease on an Acura that ends in February. I have been thinking about what my next car should be and whether I should buy the next car or lease it. Yoko and I debated a lot of choices. Ultimately we decided to buy. Since this might be the last car I ever purchase…why not get something really memorable. What I choose is a completely impractical roadster. You can’t even get a set of golf clubs in it when the roof is down, but I love it! Now all I have to do is come up with something appropriate for a license plate…Maybe “CURED” would fit the ticket?
The lung cancer support group meets the second Tuesday of every month at the Charlotte Medical Plaza, next to Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda. In case you are interested the next meeting is February 9th from 2 PM.
Since being diagnosed, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about having cancer. It is always with me and on my mind. I am living my life today as if there is nothing wrong. I’m in a clinical trial and go for shots every six weeks. Other than that, I am not being treated for cancer any longer. Am I “cured”? Well, if I am not dead and the disease is nowhere to be found, I guess you could say I am “cured”. Will it last? That is an entirely different matter.
Until you have lived 5 years after a cancer diagnosis, you are a cancer patient. If you make it to five years, in the medical world, you are considered a “survivor”. If you die from cancer at any time you are a cancer victim. I am almost half way to becoming a rare lung cancer “survivor” since I have lived two and a half years since my diagnosis. The fact of the matter is that you are never really “cured” of cancer, even if you “survive” for a while.
If you are asymptomatic, that does not mean that there are no active cancer cells running around in your body. Dr. Kartis had a useful analogy to explain the concept of a false negative when thinking about test results: if a mouse in the room is spotted running across the floor it is positive affirmation there is a mouse in the room. We can see the mouse. But if we don’t see a mouse, does it mean there is none in the room?
We can never know if we are ever “cancer free”. My current status is NED – no evidence of disease. What they mean by that is that they can’t find it, but since I had it, we can’t say that it is no longer there. The best we can say is that there is no EVIDENCE that it is there. We don’t see the mouse any longer.
The cruel thing about cancer is that you can be easily lulled into the belief that you are cured. You are living your normal life after treatment, going along your merry way…and then…. BOOM…the other shoe drops and you find you have a nodule or tumor where there was none before. All cancer patients in remission live with the fear that cancer could turn your life upside down at any time. Still, the longer you are in remission the more hopeful you become about the future.
Speaking of the future, I have a three year lease on an Acura that ends in February. I have been thinking about what my next car should be and whether I should buy the next car or lease it. Yoko and I debated a lot of choices. Ultimately we decided to buy. Since this might be the last car I ever purchase…why not get something really memorable. What I choose is a completely impractical roadster. You can’t even get a set of golf clubs in it when the roof is down, but I love it! Now all I have to do is come up with something appropriate for a license plate…Maybe “CURED” would fit the ticket?
The lung cancer support group meets the second Tuesday of every month at the Charlotte Medical Plaza, next to Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda. In case you are interested the next meeting is February 9th from 2 PM.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Help our Community Clinic
I joined the board of the St Vincent DePaul Community Pharmacy about 4 years ago. That entity has since morphed into St Vincent DePaul Community Healthcare Inc., now doing business as The Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic. I served on the board beginning in 2006 and became treasurer of the pharmacy in 2007. That year the board decided to expand the mission from providing life-saving prescription drugs to also providing urgent and episodic care to the working poor and uninsured in Charlotte County. Charlotte County is ranked 15th among 67 counties in Florida with residents without healthcare. We also have one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.
The original idea for the clinic was to relieve our congested hospital emergency rooms, which are required by law to treat anyone with illness or injury, whether they can pay or not. Emergency room costs are estimated to be six times more than treatment in a physicians’ office. Without our clinic, the emergency room was the only after hours option to access heath care for the poor.
I was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2007, at about the time the board decided to go forward with opening the clinic. Everything seemed to miraculously come together. We were able to get an ideal location near Fawcett and Peace River Hospital on county land at the Family Services Center. All three hospitals -- Fawcett, Peace River and Charlotte Regional -- provided us with seed money to bring in and set up a modular clinic on the site. As treasurer, I was responsible for funding this undertaking. My thought had always been that if the area hospitals and the community at large fully supported the effort, we could make it work.
In fact the clinic has been a win-win for everyone involved. Since opening in February of 2007, we have seen more than 9.000 patients and have dispensed thousands of prescription drugs to those in need. Treating patients (for high blood pressure, flu, diabetes, etc) who might otherwise go untreated is helping to keep them out of the hospital with more serious disease (heart attack, stroke, pneumonia). I believe what we are doing at the clinic is what Christ intended for us to do on earth, and may be one reason God is letting me live. He wants me to help keep His good work going.
In 2008 I became President of the clinic and, under the leadership of Suzanne Roberts, our executive director, we have found our feet and we are moving forward with wide ranging health services. Today we have more than 180 volunteers, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists who provide their time and expertise to help our patients. We would be nowhere without them.
In the first year of operation, Virginia B Andes, a long time community volunteer, provided the clinic with vitally needed operating dollars. Without her support we might have had to close our doors for lack of funding. Despite the generous funding we receive from the area hospitals, the county government and United Way, operating a free clinic is expensive. Our bare bones budget this year, which is based on known sources of income, is roughly $300,000. That amount allows us to operate at a subsistence level, but we are severely constrained on what we are able to do. We have set a goal to raise another $100,000 in operating dollars from the community this year.
Virginia Andres has generously offered to provide a match to any individual who makes a pledge or donation of $1000 or more, up to $50,000 in total. We have already raised $25,000 toward our goal. We are appealing to others with the wherewithal in our community to step up with an annual donation. If you would like to become a Pacesetter and make a truly remarkable difference, contact me or visit our clinic website at www.volunteercare.org to make donation to our cause.
The original idea for the clinic was to relieve our congested hospital emergency rooms, which are required by law to treat anyone with illness or injury, whether they can pay or not. Emergency room costs are estimated to be six times more than treatment in a physicians’ office. Without our clinic, the emergency room was the only after hours option to access heath care for the poor.
I was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2007, at about the time the board decided to go forward with opening the clinic. Everything seemed to miraculously come together. We were able to get an ideal location near Fawcett and Peace River Hospital on county land at the Family Services Center. All three hospitals -- Fawcett, Peace River and Charlotte Regional -- provided us with seed money to bring in and set up a modular clinic on the site. As treasurer, I was responsible for funding this undertaking. My thought had always been that if the area hospitals and the community at large fully supported the effort, we could make it work.
In fact the clinic has been a win-win for everyone involved. Since opening in February of 2007, we have seen more than 9.000 patients and have dispensed thousands of prescription drugs to those in need. Treating patients (for high blood pressure, flu, diabetes, etc) who might otherwise go untreated is helping to keep them out of the hospital with more serious disease (heart attack, stroke, pneumonia). I believe what we are doing at the clinic is what Christ intended for us to do on earth, and may be one reason God is letting me live. He wants me to help keep His good work going.
In 2008 I became President of the clinic and, under the leadership of Suzanne Roberts, our executive director, we have found our feet and we are moving forward with wide ranging health services. Today we have more than 180 volunteers, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists who provide their time and expertise to help our patients. We would be nowhere without them.
In the first year of operation, Virginia B Andes, a long time community volunteer, provided the clinic with vitally needed operating dollars. Without her support we might have had to close our doors for lack of funding. Despite the generous funding we receive from the area hospitals, the county government and United Way, operating a free clinic is expensive. Our bare bones budget this year, which is based on known sources of income, is roughly $300,000. That amount allows us to operate at a subsistence level, but we are severely constrained on what we are able to do. We have set a goal to raise another $100,000 in operating dollars from the community this year.
Virginia Andres has generously offered to provide a match to any individual who makes a pledge or donation of $1000 or more, up to $50,000 in total. We have already raised $25,000 toward our goal. We are appealing to others with the wherewithal in our community to step up with an annual donation. If you would like to become a Pacesetter and make a truly remarkable difference, contact me or visit our clinic website at www.volunteercare.org to make donation to our cause.
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