Data and Natural Forces

What I'm really talking about here is the idea of taking time to sit and ponder.

The time I've spent here, day 16 at 9-AM today, I believe, has been an amazing time of reflective thought and inconclusive activity. Feeling well as I do, I've spent hours reading, listening to music, books on tape and enjoying the company of friends and family. It's kind of a monk-like existence, my worldly responsibilities have been primarily shuffled to others, my world although wired to the outside is very small and there's little competing for my attention. In reality, my time here follows a protocol for treatment that has gone before. There's a percentage of those treatments that didn't yield the hoped for results. Equally, there have been a high percentage of those treated that have met and exceeded any expected outcome.

So, what's the difference? In short, who knows, but there are abundant theory. Because I have lots of friends and they occupy all kind of life posts from minister/priest to retired guys, to writers, to designers, I get lots of opinion. One of the opinions I like best is from Hippocrates in 400- B.C. "Natural forces within us are true healers of disease". Contrast that to the medical extreme of data driven decisions, skillfully using what's gone before, known/proven results, to determine the most productive course of action. While we are missing data as it relates directly to my disorder, there's a mountain of data on 100's of variety of leukemia to point very smart people in the right direction.

Briefly, I feel really fine, reflective and very positive about a life ahead of me. There's a lot that will be new, there's a lot of love flying above me, below me and taking me by the hand every day. Absent more conclusive data, I'll go with Hippocrates and love any day.

Thanks to all of you for the opportunity to experience that love.
Arnie