In the Arena

Somewhere in this blog is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt about the special qualities needed for a person to slug it out in the political arena. I have a lot of admiration for all these politicos who seem to thrive in all the patronage, corruption, deceit, immoral compromises that characterizes our political environment. I have been unable to sleep well over the past 3 weeks just thinking about what I may just plunge into. I don't think I ever pondered anything as serious as this in my 18 year medical practice. Pondering is too easy, agonizing would be more appropriate. There have been many times when I would just tell myself that it was not yet the right time and my daughters were still too young and my golf handicap needed to go down a little bit more...I have even asked my wife on a number of occasions to command me to drop everything (which she of course never did because she thinks that I will only be miserable in thinking about the what ifs). This is one part of the journey that I need to do on my own because she will have to care for our kids in Bacolod, a very radical departure from our close, daily association in our 17 years of medical practice.

The odds are soooooooooo long and there have been times when I have felt bereft thinking about the political heavyweights arrayed in front of me. They have so much more money and resources, so many more connections, so much more experience in this kind of activity. What is a gastroenterologist doing here?

Probably because the stakes have never been higher and if we don't move and we don't do anything and we don't speak up, who will? Tomorrow will be a very important day. Stay tuned for the next post.