While driving on the freeway the other day I saw a license plate that said “Me Vale” (pronounced May Vah Lay). It’s a Spanish slang term used in Mexico that basically is a term used to impose that something easily rolls off your shoulders or that it really doesn’t matter to you. It literally is translated as “To me it’s of worth,” but its connotation is of the opposite. Ironically enough that person cut us off while we were trying to pass a semi and the license plate became that much funnier to me. It’s a term I haven’t heard in a long time. At first it was funny but then I got to think of it a little more. Sometimes I think we all need to have that kind of attitude in our lives, not the one that puts you or others in danger (like the lady who cut us off) but the one where we don’t get offended by others. How often are we offended or upset by the actions, or lack of actions, of others and how often do we let those offenses separate us from the company of those that we used to enjoy? In our world of today we cannot control how we are treated; but we can control how we respond. Everyone has little things that set us off and more often than not it is the members of our own family or our friends that are the ones who either set us off (most times unintentionally or unknowingly) and/or receive the tail end of our anger. They are the ones that we distance our selves from and suffer more when we let these little things get in the way of our relationships. This is not the doctrine of Christ. Contention is not what he taught. In fact, he counseled against it and even gave instructions on how to act. “Turn the other cheek,” or “Give him your cloak,” or even “Go with him twain,” were the teachings of Christ. We need to implement the thought of “Me Vale” into our lives. Let us remember that it is not our family or friends whom we separate from our lives but that is our lives that we separate from our family and friends. We ostracize ourselves from the blessings that we could receive if we were to only keep in mind “Me Vale.” Remember that it isn’t others who offend us but our choice to take offense. There will always be times when family and friends bug us but always keep in your mind “Me Vale.” Once we learn to master this within our own families we can then apply it to the many other relationships that we have in this world, be it work, school, etc. The commandment of Christ is that we be one for if we are not one we are not his.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
"Me Vale"
While driving on the freeway the other day I saw a license plate that said “Me Vale” (pronounced May Vah Lay). It’s a Spanish slang term used in Mexico that basically is a term used to impose that something easily rolls off your shoulders or that it really doesn’t matter to you. It literally is translated as “To me it’s of worth,” but its connotation is of the opposite. Ironically enough that person cut us off while we were trying to pass a semi and the license plate became that much funnier to me. It’s a term I haven’t heard in a long time. At first it was funny but then I got to think of it a little more. Sometimes I think we all need to have that kind of attitude in our lives, not the one that puts you or others in danger (like the lady who cut us off) but the one where we don’t get offended by others. How often are we offended or upset by the actions, or lack of actions, of others and how often do we let those offenses separate us from the company of those that we used to enjoy? In our world of today we cannot control how we are treated; but we can control how we respond. Everyone has little things that set us off and more often than not it is the members of our own family or our friends that are the ones who either set us off (most times unintentionally or unknowingly) and/or receive the tail end of our anger. They are the ones that we distance our selves from and suffer more when we let these little things get in the way of our relationships. This is not the doctrine of Christ. Contention is not what he taught. In fact, he counseled against it and even gave instructions on how to act. “Turn the other cheek,” or “Give him your cloak,” or even “Go with him twain,” were the teachings of Christ. We need to implement the thought of “Me Vale” into our lives. Let us remember that it is not our family or friends whom we separate from our lives but that is our lives that we separate from our family and friends. We ostracize ourselves from the blessings that we could receive if we were to only keep in mind “Me Vale.” Remember that it isn’t others who offend us but our choice to take offense. There will always be times when family and friends bug us but always keep in your mind “Me Vale.” Once we learn to master this within our own families we can then apply it to the many other relationships that we have in this world, be it work, school, etc. The commandment of Christ is that we be one for if we are not one we are not his.
Sun Valley Physician Assistants Confernce
This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Sun Valley, Idaho and participate in the Idaho Academy of Physician Assistants (IAPA) annual conference. It was the first conference I’ve ever attended pertaining to my career. At first I was reluctant to go. I knew that it was going to be three days of lectures and that many of them would be on topics that, at the time, didn’t interest me. Plus, since the beginning of PA school I’ve spent eight hours a day, almost every day, of the school week in class listening through many lectures. Many of these lectures have bored me. So as you can see I was reluctant to go to sit through more lectures. However, I decided to go for the experience. It was a free trip out of Pocatello to a place that is somewhat similar to Park City, Utah. As it turned out, I enjoyed the trip and the conference more than I thought I would.
Sun Valley was a great place to go visit. It’s a secluded place located smack dab in the middle of Southern Idaho. The drive wasn’t the most exciting drive that I’ve been on. Southern Idaho doesn’t have much to offer in terms of beautiful scenery. It was basically dead plains. However, once you start to arrive close to Sun Valley you enter into the Sawtooth Mountains and the scenery changes. The mountains encircled about on every side and towered above all. They were covered with pine trees and plenty of snow. It was a site very different to that which I’m used to in Pocatello. It reminded me a lot of Huntsville and the Ogden Valley. It was a beautiful scene.
The condos that we stayed in were very comfortable and well furnished. I first thought that we accidentally entered into someone else’s home because of the way it was furnished. There was a colage of family pictures on the walls and books on the bookshelf. There were three rooms and we stayed 5-6 in each condo. We didn’t spend much time in the condos though because of the other things we did.
Like I said, the conference was actually more enjoyable than I thought it would be. There was a schedule of one hour lectures with lunch and breaks in between. These breaks were spent in another hall area were many pharmaceutical vendors, medical equipment suppliers, and other vendors had set up little booths to provide information on their respective products. As with all “reps” there was plenty of free stuff to be taken. Most of it is used around the office and probably for me useless, but it was there and free so why not take it? I’m sure I can make good use of it. I’ve had to opportunities to receive lunches from reps while I worked in the hospital but I actually enjoyed more this encounter. I was able to speak one on one with many reps and also learn a little on how to differentiate from those who are just saying what they’ve been trained to say and those who actually know what they’re talking about.
I didn’t attend all the lectures but the majority that I did attend I enjoyed. The two that I got the most from were titled “Oppositional Defiant Disorders” and “New Techniques.” The one on new techniques touched on the subject of deep brain stimulation and new cervical spine surgery techniques that do not require fusion on the cervical (neck) vertebrae. After that lecture I was able to talk with the doctor who presented it. For a neurosurgeon, he was actually a decent man. His care and humanistic approach to medicine was evident in the way that he presented his lecture and while talking to him afterwards.
When not attending lectures and during the evening times we explored the city of Ketchum (where the Sun Valley resort is located) and also took advantage of the opportunities the resort had to offer. We went to a couple different art galleries, one of oil paintings and bronze sculptures. There was not a piece in that gallery that was less than $5,000.00. The priciest piece there was a bronze eagle that went for $30,000. That’s more than I paid for my house and Jeep combined, and to me, not something that I would collect. That kind of art just didn’t appeal to me. The other gallery that we went to was that of a nature photographer. The theme of this gallery was that of the western United States. There were many pictures of bears and wolves and many other sites in nature that you would expect to find out in the west. If anyone has seen the Discover channel series Planet Earth they would enjoy and recognize the beauty of these pictures displayed in this gallery. The price ranged from two to five hundred dollars. Although this is still a high price, especially for a poor college student, I could justify spending the money because it is something that I would like to have in my home someday.
One night we all got together in the lounge of one of the resorts inns to watch the Jazz take on the Spurs. Probably one of the most relaxing places to watch a basketball game. The seats were comfortable, the food was good, the TV was big, and the Jazz rocked the Spurs. I’m sure that the others who were in the lounge of the inn became annoyed with us as we were cheering the Jazz on but that really didn’t matter. Afterwards we went and enjoyed the heated pools of the lodge.
I could easily enjoy living this kind of life. However, I know that it isn’t a life that I would live constantly. It’s a type of life that is only to be enjoyed after much work. It’s a life to be “earned” and enjoyed occasionally rather than “deserved” and enjoyed constantly. The real joys of life come from that with family and service to others.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Pictures
So here are a few random pictures. A couple of them are of the beautiful drive from Ogden to Pocatello, one is of just one (yes only one) semester of books, and the other two are of parts of campus. I don't actually have a picture of the building or classroom.
New Onsent
I've noticed recently that I've been getting asked the same question by different people. Since I've been at PA school I haven't had a lot of contact with people back in Ogden so those times when I do talk with them I always end up repeating the same information to different people. So, to keep everyone up to date, I've decided to start this blog. No, it's not a cop-out to not have to talk to people anymore...ok so maybe it is. All right, so it's just a way to get the information out that everyone is so interested in reading.
I'll try to keep this thing as updated as possible. I'm thinking at least once a month on things like how school's going , anything new going on, etc. Every now and then if I have an interesting thought or something on my mind I'd like to get off I'll put that on there.
Most of you reading this will have some sort of way to contact me so feel free to do that as well if you want to.
Most of you reading this will have some sort of way to contact me so feel free to do that as well if you want to.
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