Lucky!!

I rode this train in Chicago 6 days before it drailed on March 24, 2014. The next week I was in Los Angeles, two days later, a major earthquake hit the area.

Someone mentioned to me how blessed I am.

I am not.

Accepting that thought implies that other people, all of the people that were hurt in this train, were not deeemed worthy of divine protection. This implies that I am special or better than them. I refuse to think that.

Taking random data and connecting random dots to create a pattern is foolish. It leads us to believe that if we line up special dots; like religion, touching wood or wearing lucky socks, the wholw univere will line up in our favor.

14 April 2014: Update.

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in al the world...

I am assigned to 2 different, unrelated studies. Two drug makers, two disease groups. one cancer and staph infection. Two sets of sites, one in the west coast (6 sites) the other one takes me from California to Iowa and Nebraska (32 sites). Today the manager for one study told me that one of our coworkers forgot to get a vital document from the site at the previous visit. I mean a terribly urgent legal document of which we needed the original signature. I happen to notice that out of all the hospitals, clinics, labs, in the entire country I am on the campus of the same university...and, out of the hundreds of buildings that make up the campus of UCLA, I happen to be across the street from the place. I walk over and who answers the door? the person I needed to sign the document. Disaster avoided. One manager could not understand how I got the document in 10 minutes, I had to explain it 4 times. She was shocked.

I can think that God build one building in 1976 and the other one in 2011 to make my job serendipitously easy today in 2014, and that all off time I happen to be here today

or

I can accept that despite the almost impossible odds of this happening, it did. It just did. To believe this happened by concidence is crazy, but that is what it is.

This is why I dont belive in luck, as I say:

Luck is the religion of the lazy and the faith of the unenlightened.

A bit of everything

I live by these words.

17 MAR 2014 PM

Ok. Back at O'Hare. My visit went just perfect. The right amount of preparation, luck and timing. Oh, and yeah the site was a block from the subway so I got to take the train into O'Hare, which is $3 instead of a $50 cab ride. Sure, traveling in a suite with a nice leather duffel bag, in the ghetto could be labeled as unwise. Or as my dad would call it "giving papaya", whatever that means.

This may sound like the beggining of a lame joke, but the coordinator, is Syrian, his back up is Iraqi and the  Principal Investigator is a straight up Jew, with the accent and everything. The Coordinator, Dr. Matar Matar was incredibly nice. We had to work in unconfortably close quarters, the thermostat broken with a pouring a river of heat right above my head. I was pouring sweating within 60 seconds. 

Oh, the AC was also on, on full blast, and the windows were open. Yeah, its a county hospital, from 1678 or whenever they thought that the heat and A/C should work at the same time was a good idea.  Super run down, I heard a dope and hooker deal go down with the window open.

I had a the funniest run in with a homesless person. I was hit up 6 or 7 times by hobos in the last 24 hours. My clever response is, "sorry, man, I only have a debit card". Well today one of these guys responds, "no problem man, there is an ATM in the next block, I can wait for you here or come with you, if that's easier" I started laughing and walking away. He continued. He was dead serious.

 "Helping the homeless is worth walking a block man, it's a serious issue, don't you want to help the homeless?!". At this point I was far enough that he was shouting. Apparently he was not just a hobbo, he was also a the greater Chicago area hobo union rep. 

I am going back to the New York approach of pretending they are invisible that seems to work with all charities...I keeeed, kinda.

So back to my Jew-Muslim-Arab story. I waited about 12 minutes before I opened the polical can. Suprisingly all of them were not just types or labels, they were concerned for their families and their people. They get along fantastically. I suddenly remebered that I get my news from the worse place, news sources. 

I told the sirian that his name Matar Matar, may need to be revised if he is going to work in the Hispanic population  in Spanish Brooklyn (he is moving to NYC next month). I almost cracked a joke when the Jew asked if there was any money left in the budget.

This conversation, reassured me once more why people should not be divided by religion or nationality.  Becuase we loose who they really are and becuase it makes working with them in a 70 square foot office, or the world, really uncomfortable.

17 MAR 2014

Off to Chicago this morning. The flight is delayed taking off in SLC, in fact the plane is not even here.

It can be very frustating, delays. It can if you let it.

Life in many ways can be interpreted as a gap between what you expect and what actually happens. In that gap, we can experience happiness or utter bitterness.

The difference in your experience is one realization: You are not in control.

As a society we create the illusion of continuity, certainty and control. These are just illusions. As a society, we have been developed the ability to create artificial environments to make us comfortable, we have grown soft.

I find it amusing to hear people as I travel. 95% of them will start a conversation by complaining. Can you believe this weather?!  Of course they are running late! This airport is so far away from the rental car facility, its ridiculous! These planes are always too hot or too cold, why can't they get it right, ugh!

We open conversations with strangers with complaints. People walk up to the gate counter at the airport: My seat number is not on my ticket! Not: hello, can you help me? or how are you, I was wondering, my....

No. Complaining has become the universal language. It's worse in the US, we invented the term "1st world problems" because we realized how ridiculous we sound. We take time to tell the world that Starbucks did not put enough cream in our coffee. 

This is why I refuse to join twiter. 

What can I do if my flght is delayed? really. What can I do if it snows in Chicago? Or if a flight attendant does not show up to work and I am late for a meeting? 

Nothing.

I am suddenly reverted to my ancestors trying to figure out why their crops did not come in or why someone got sick and died. I can dance around the fire and pound dirt, but I can only make a difference by being patient or trying something different.

This is my travel motto: if you are prepared, ye shall not complain. And even then, no one wants to hear it. 

We have a limited amount of influence around us, let's not waste time complaining. There is no problem in life that won't be made worse by complaining.