Around the Dinner Table

The best of generosity inspires future generosity - not the repayment of generosity.

Five Qualities (open for critique)

Family – Love, humor, responsibility. I am the oldest of six siblings. I am a husband and a brother-in-law. I am a classmate, a teammate, and a roommate. I have many good friends and I am a good friend to many. I attended birthdays, weddings, commencements, graduations, funerals, and cookouts. I actively instill an almost tangible quality into every relationship in which I engage to the point that walking into class feels like a family reunion.

Athleticism – Energy, creativity, team building. I have participated in athletic activities since I was a child. I believe in physical fitness for training the build up and release of energy in both athletic and professional activities. I love to employ improvisation in group sports like soccer, and also to create new games to allow a playful free thinking approach to challenges. Team sports cultivate communication and interdependence that translates easily to a professional and/or academic setting where we must rely on and support our peers.

Ingenuity – Courage, dedication, initiative. I have a knack for appreciating the mission of an organization and finding ways to improve it. In the Religious Studies department at UVA, I founded a peer mentorship program to help make newcomers feel more included and well oriented. At Rosetta Stone I developed new sales techniques. Growing up on a farm, I planted potatoes in old tire treads to increase warmth and retention of nutrients.

Stamina – Vigilance, perseverance, faith. From supporting myself through college, to riding my bicycle everywhere I go, to working three part time jobs at once, to entering long distance foot races - I take on more than seems possible and exhibit stamina in finishing what I start no matter how tough it gets.

Inspiration – Hope. I discover inspiration in many places – the pages of National Geographic Magazine, watching Olympic athletes, listening to a pediatrician give wellness advice to his patients. Many people continue to put hope, faith and love into me because I have a tremendous capacity to receive inspiration and use it to make their world a little better. In return, I seek through both example and guidance to inspire those around me by supporting my peers and kindling the fire in rising generations.

Foundations - The Healing Arts

According to an old story, a lord of ancient China once asked his physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art. The physician, whose reputation was such that his name became synonymous with medical science in China, replied, "My eldest brother sees the the spirit of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so his name does not get out of the house. My elder brother cures illness when it is still extremely minute, so his name does not get out of the neighborhood. As for me, I puncture veins, prescribe potions, and massage skin, so from time to time my name gets out and is heard among the lords.

I remember I was 15 when I heard this for the first time - yes, heard. I have an audiobook of The Art of War, translated and with an introduction by Thomas Cleary. For me it was the first illustration of what doctoring was all about. That importance was not directly related to prominence. That the success of a physician is not truly measured by the quantity of their service, nor even the demand for their service, but by the wellness of their patients (and in a broader sense, the wellness of their community). This nugget began cultivating in me a mind set of quality over quantity and of medicine as an art more than a procedure.