We are lucky!

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

...we didn't arrive by spaceship, we arrived by being born, and we didn't burst conscious into the world but accumulated awareness gradually through babyhood. The fact that we gradually apprehend our world, rather than sudddenly discovering it, should not subtract from its wonder."
Richard Dawkins

Running, surgery and philosophy!

I am reading an interesting book, "running and philosophy" by
Michael Austin which I came across while was looking for a book about philosophy of mind!. I can relate to it because there are many similarities between marathon running and surgical training! I recommend reading this book.
The author describes the seven Cs of success originally proposed by Thomas Morris in pursuit of excellence:

1. A clear Conception of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.
2. A strong Confidence that we can attain our goal.
3. A focused Concentration that we can attain our goal.
4. A stubborn Consistency in pursuing our vision.
5. An emotional Commitment to the importance of what we’re doing [passion]
6. A good Character to guide us and keep us on a proper course.
7. A Capacity to Enjoy the process along the way.

Important things in life

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.
Bertrand Russell

Life and music!

Can you imagine our life without music?

St Anthony, NL

I am wrting this post at St John's Airport. Thanks to free internet!I can write while waiting for my flight to St Anthony. I have been looking forward to my rural surgery rotation in St Anthony since last year. I am planning to take many pictures from beautiful nature in my spare time. I am not sure if I will have any!

To a friend

I do not think there is any first or last race or competition if you live on a daily basis. We never know what comes next so why bother. Things are important if we wish to! Life is not a game to win or lose. Loser or winner, life goes on and we forget. The train of life does not stop. We could be like the driver and just look at horizon and be excited about what is going to be next or to be a passenger who enjoys watching the scenes, even in the desert or like a person at the end of the train who looks at the past!
If one day, you decide to try a different life in this part of the world, do not forget you have a friend who enjoys watching the scenes on the train of life!


Peace
Iman