MY TOWN

I thought I would share this beautiful picture of my town. It is a reminder of how blessed I am to live where I do.  Come visit and see for yourself!

RCTID

RCTID is the official motto of the Portland Timbers, our local soccer team that plays in Major League Soccer. It stands for Rose City 'til I Die. (i.e. I will always support the Timbers).

I have been a season ticket holder for five years now, and surprisingly this is the first time I believe I have written about the Timbers here. This is because the team have been perennial under performers.

This year is different though, and the Timbers have played some exceptional football. There are several reasons for this: players playing in positions to which they're best-suited, better players, and better coaching/organization.

Tonight, the Timbers defeated FC Dallas to win the Western Conference Championship and advance to the MLS Cup. Win or lose, this has been an exceptional season, and I am truly proud of our team.

Enjoy the final goal in the series with Dallas! It is one for the ages!

THE AGONY OF DEFEAT

Earlier this month I began coaching the Arbor Boys futsal team Monster Mash for the fourth time. We finished as league champions the previous three seasons and had only lost three times in three seasons. This season has been much more challenging, and we have already lost three matches.

There are several explanations for the difference in results this year. First, we lost one of our top players to injury. Second, we have had a few player absences. Finally, and most importantly, we are playing in the Competitive Under 11 (U11) Division. We had played in Competitive divisions before, but this age group is clearly much more competitive. This is because every team we face is made up of players on "Classic," year-round soccer teams. Our team, on the other hand, is made up of some Classic players, some who play recreational ("Rec") soccer and some who do not play at all. Our competition is organized, aggressive, and skilled. This is enough to overcome the familiarity our players have with each other from playing at recess every day and to overcome one of our truly exceptional players - Q.

I have tried to keep the boys' spirits up and explained to them that our competition is truly skilled and that we should still hold our heads high for giving it our all. We have managed to win one match and nearly beat the top team last week. That team had only given up 7 seven goals in two matches - the fewest of any team. We were able to put six past them, though they scored eight.

We have three games left, and we will keep going. One cannot win every match, but one can give one's all. Here's to humility and picking one's self up - lessons the boys have learned all too well this season.

HE'S BACK

After more than a two month absence, Lionel Messi returned to the stage last weekend during a momentous occasion - the first league match against FC Barcelona's eternal rival, Real Madrid.

It had been a quiet, almost sad two months for football since Messi's went out with a medial cruciate ligament injury in his left knee. I certainly did not enjoy watching the game as much or following soccer news. However, all of that sadness came to an end once Messi stepped on the field.

By that point in the game, Barca were already cruising and led 3-0. Shortly after coming on, Messi made a beautiful run and completed a brilliant pass that led to a quick through ball to Luis Suarez, who finished it clinically. Barca went on to win 4-0.

Just three days later Messi returned to action and scored two goals in the Champions League against Roma. His first was utterly brilliant, and I think there are few in the game who could have scored from the tight position Messi found himself in.



Finally, this weekend, Messi scored again in a 4-0 win over Real Sociedad in league play. He's back!

It is Messi's genius and the joy he exudes on the pitch that we all have missed so much. His absence due to injury and his return are a reminder that Messi is mortal. We should enjoy him while we can. That is why my family and I will be traveling to Barcelona for the third straight year (fourth for me) to witness Leo and all the Barca players.

Visca Leo and visca Barca!

ICI C'EST PARIS

Ici c'est Paris is the motto of the French football club Paris St. Germain. However, this phrase took on a much more ominous, almost questioning tone late last week after the coordinated attacks on the city. Ici c'est Paris?

Several teams of terrorists carried out multiple attacks on "soft" targets throughout the city. These included a restaurant, a concert hall, and the Stade de France national stadium where Les Bleus (The Blues), as the French national team is known, were playing Germany. More than 100 people were killed in these attacks, and several hundred people have been wounded. It was the single worst terrorist attack on French soil, and the French were still reeling today as I write this.

They were not alone in their sadness and outrage. We in America know the tragedy that terrorism brings, and we are not the only ones. There were bombs in Turkey and Lebanon, too. ISIS is on the march.

All of these events are even more tragic when one considers that there is no obvious solution to stamping out global terrorism. How do you convince disaffected youth to not blow themselves up? How do you prevent such tragedies without trampling on civil rights?

We will need some creative solutions, but I am afraid it is not possible to stop terrorism and to prevent these crises. Much can be done to thwart them and to minimize their impact, but it is folly to think that we can live in a world free of global terrorism.

What is in our control is how we live, how we treat others, and how we respond to such tragedies.

My family has a trip to Europe planned this year. We are still committed to going. We want to see this part of the world that gave birth to our country and our way of life. We will not be deterred. We will not be terrorized into changing our way of life.

More than ever it is so obvious that we are all connected. We, humankind, rise and fall as one. Today, and every day, je suis un Parisien (I am a Parisian)!

WAKE ME UP!

Nicholas has been taking music lessons for the past five years with his teacher Jan. He started off with the ukulele but graduated to the mandolin over a year ago. When he upgraded his instrument, I decided to buy a mandolin, too, and to devote myself more fully to learning how to play the instrument.

Each year Jan holds a Fall recital, and Nicholas and I have performed together the last few years. In years past, I was quite nervous up there and did not execute my part very well.

This year, we decided to pick a song we heard at the Women's World Cup Final during the warm ups before the match. It is a beautiful ballad by the Swedish DJ Avicci called, "Wake Me Up."

We practiced the song for over two months. Nicholas was in charge of the melody - the more difficult part. I was in charge of the chords.

Today was the recital day. We were both calm and resolute as we took the stage. We were ready. We knew the piece inside and out. We knocked it out of the park!

Enjoy!

IMMIGRATION LESSON

Our nation faces an immigration crisis with millions of undocumented aliens and many others clamoring to come to the U.S. Because of this, it is very easy for discussion of immigration to devolve into xenophobia and "us vs. them" diatribes (see the Republican primary field). However, I experienced a very personal story of how our broken immigration policy impacts family's lives while attending on the inpatient oncology service this past week.

J, we will call him, was a Mexican immigrant who had been living in the US for the past several years. He worked in the fields in the agriculture industry - a job most Americans refuse to do. While here, he developed shoulder pain that was severe enough to land him in the hospital. He was found to have a large mass that turned out to be a bone cancer. He was started on chemotherapy. However, he developed a bowel perforation and almost died. Sadly, his wife and infant child were back in Mexico and unable to visit him because of his undocumented status. Eventually, his wife was allowed to come to see him because we feared he might die.

Fortunately, he survived that hospitalization and was well enough to be admitted for another cycle of chemo. During this hospitalization, the chemo made him confused and quite emotionally labile. He was unable to hold back his feelings, which poured out on rounds one day. He said that this treatment was not worth it. He just wanted to be with his son back in Mexico. However, he knew that if he left he would not be able to receive treatment that might stabilize his cancer and allow him to live for the next few years. He was stuck between staying here and receiving treatment that had only caused complications so far or going home to die to be with his son. The starkness and brutality of this choice was straight out of a Camus novel. What should he do? What would you choose?

Ultimately, his mental status improved, and he became more clear. He decided to forge ahead with treatment.

I never asked him what went into this decision, but I bet he would have said something like this. "I want to stay here and fight the cancer because that will give me the best chance of surviving so that I can spend more time with my child who is hundreds of miles away. I want to get well enough to go home or live long enough for this government to change its cruel, unfeeling laws."

Here endeth the immigration lesson.

THE INNOCENCE OF YOUTH

I have been on call this week supervising the inpatient Solid Tumor service. We admit patients to our team who have complications from cancer or who need to receive high doses of chemotherapy over several days. Last night we admitted a 25 year old young man to start chemotherapy treatment.

This young man had a prior history of a genetic disease called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) that leads to countless polyps in the colon and an increased risk of colon cancer. When he was found to have masses on his liver and a large abdominal mass, it was assumed that he had developed a colon cancer.  However, to add insult to injury, his biopsy showed that he had a completely unrelated cancer - a sarcoma that is a soft tissue type of cancer.

When I saw him this morning, I instinctively asked him, "How are you today?" He replied, "I have been better..." His response made me really appreciate you inappropriate and insensitive my seemingly mundane question had been. Of course, he was not doing well; he was going to die of his cancer as a young man, and he knew it.

I quickly shifted focus and asked him more specific questions about symptoms related to the chemo we were giving and examined him. I told him we were here if he needed anything and that he should not be shy about asking for nausea meds. He nodded in agreement, and we made our way out of the room.

I was struck by several things during this encounter. 1. Cancer sucks. 2. One should chose one's words carefully and really think before one speaks. 3. There is nothing more unfair than a young person afflicted by a terrible disease like cancer. 4. Finally, enjoy every moment of good health because health is until further notice.

BOYS IN THE BOAT

Recently, Nicholas and I finished the book Boys and the Boat - the true story of the University of Washington Crew Team won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics.

The book was inspiring on several levels, most of all because the boys of the title all hailed from the Pacific Northwest. They each came from humble walks of life but went on to be the most heralded American crew team in history. Along the way to triumphing in the Olympics, they dispatched some of the best crew teams in the country from Cal-Berkeley and several East Coast teams full of blue bloods. In fact, several of the boys from that team won every race during their four years of collegiate and Olympic rowing - quite a feat!

Pick up Boys in Boat. It may just inspire you to do something you did not think was possible.

THREEPEAT

Last week, my futsal team Arse-and-all won our third title in the past five seasons. It was one of our easiest championship runs, and we actually won the title with one week to spare in the season.  However, like with every season, we did it a little bit differently.

In the past, we have been much more of a possession-based team with quick interchanging passes and many beautiful team goals much like Guardiola's Barca. This season, however, we played a decidedly different style - more counterattacking with less possession or control - kind of like the current Barca. They say that one must adapt or die. Therefore, I guess we can call this evolution, although I am not sure I would call it progress or more beautiful than our former style. However, one must dance with the one that brought you or play the style that fits the current players, many of whom were new and unused to the style of play that we used to inflict on other teams.

I do not want you to think that playing was boring or unfulfilling. On the contrary, it felt great to complete such a wonderful collective achievement of winning another title as a team. Working together to create something beautiful is what brings me back to this team and this game every time. Playing is fun, and playing and winning is even better.

I sprang for trophies for the team when it was clear that we would be champions, and I bought a cup trophy, too. This is because far too often we dwell on the failures and lows rather than the successes and highs in life. This was not one of those moments, We had a small ceremony after the final game, and we even got some love on social media from the facility at which we play.  The players seem truly touched, but it was I who had been touched by them and everything they gave to the team this season.

We are taking a little bit of a break, but I hope we will be back on the court soon. Here's to Arse!

THE CIRCLE

Sometimes a book comes along that really makes one think about how one is living and where our society is heading. The latest book from Dave Eggers called The Circle is one of those books.

The novel is set in Northern California and tells the story of a recent college graduate named Mae who lands a job at a tech giant called the Circle - think Facebook meets Google. Mae is quickly drawn into the charms of this company with its free cafeteria, many college-like interest clubs, and its diverse group of very bright and driven young people. Along the way, Mae gets a clearer view of the Circle and how its business model is largely built on getting its customers and employees, alike, to allow the Circle access into their lives. This is much more than mining status updates and search histories. The Circle creates products and technologies that are increasingly intrusive and that come to dominate nearly every aspect of the users daily activities.

This may seem quite dystopian or far-fetched until one actually evaluates one's own life and use of technology. For example, I would not be able to share this story with you if it were not for the fact that Google runs the Blogger website.  Similarly, I commonly share photos with you on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. These sites are currently free, but, at any moment, these companies could charge a fee that we would probably pay to keep using this content. Moreover, all of our "likes," "comments," and "re-tweets" are being monitored so that companies can micro target us and get us to buy their products. Finally, every single search we do on the internet is visible to every search engine company. It is only a matter of time until we have to pay to keep our search histories private. All of this is to say that while technology and the internet have improved the world in so many great ways, there is a price that will be soon extort from us for this technology.

I do not think the answer to this dilemma is to retreat into a cave or become a Luddite. However, I would suggest that you do not do anything online that you would be embarrassed to have your parents or coworkers find out about. Think before you Google because Google and the like are thinking about your googling.