I've started listening to TED talks (TED.com) on my work commute. It took me a whole to sort out how not to eat my entire data plan in a week, but now that I've figured out Podcasts, everything is copacetic.
Given my recent fascination with health, talks on this topic have caught my interest, and I found myself listening to a talk by ePatient Dave, né Dave deBronkart. His short story is that he beat late stage kidney cancer by taking research into his own hands and finding specialists and experimental treatments online, and now he's an avid patient advocate encouraging others to partner with their healthcare providers to find solutions, as all too often that is not the case.
While kidney cancer is not my particular concern, I realized I "know" Dave. He lived on my college dorm floor, MIT's East Campus' "THiRD EAst," better known to its residents past and current as the third east traveling animal zoo, or Tetazoo for short. Although I've never met him (he graduated a month after I was born), he's an active contributor on the Tetazoo Yahoo! board that I read from time to time. The name was the same, and certainly the humor and attitude I heard coming through my car's speakers were the same. I looked him up, sent an email inquiring, and almost immediately he replied confirming my suspicions.
The funny thing I have to smack my forehead about is that in all my reading of the boards, I was picturing a young 20 something person writing his words. I knew he was older than me (though wasn't exactly sure how old at the time), but his playful nerdy nature came through his commentary and banter. In his TED talk, he showed a picture of himself in true young 70s style, and it is pretty much what I had been personifying him as, rather than the trim, silver haired figure on the stage.
The lesson here is around youthfulness and how we're only as old as we feel we are. I feel kind of old in body right now, which is part of why I'm undertaking this whole WholeThing - to feel physically young(er) again. When I asked Jill at the YMCA how she felt, she said she felt she could jump over the building. I don't feel that way (28 yr younger), but I sure want to! That's part of why I'm trying this crazy thing. When the body feels old, the mind often follows. I'm ready to push that as far into the future as I can.
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