This is wonderful! While I don’t recognize over half the things on the list (as a benighted Canadian, I am not privy to the gnosis of baseball), I think that what was refreshing about this was how *humane* it was.
During the course of my training, I’ve become a father several times over - a wonderful confluence of events, certainly, but one that has left me without much time or mental bandwidth to engage in more humane pursuits. I look forward very much to reclaiming my time when my training comes to an end.
One recent joy has been slowly working my way through some classic literature, so perhaps it’s fitting to end with:
I love a Tale of Two Cities
I love War and Peace
I love PG Wodehouse
I love my kids
Peace of Christ to you, Dr Cifu. I really do appreciate your writing.
I’m glad you’re a fellow Wodehouse fan. I read a book jacket endorsement on one of his books that talked about him as a “musician of the English language”, and I think that’s exactly right.
He uses words like Mozart uses notes. Everything is light, rambunctious, rollicking, but somehow crystalline and perfectly timed. I’ve read enough of his stuff to see that the plot essentially repeats itself over and over again, but like variations on a theme, it almost always feels like something worth listening to, for the pure joy of the experience. Wodehouse is unique in that you could read a collection of sentences taken at random from any of his works, in almost any order, and enjoy it simply for the music of his prose.
Anyways - you’ve triggered a flight of fancy for me, which I appreciate. Thanks again.
I love the NYY from 1978 too! Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Henderson, Nettles, Munson, and all those players that I hope I can get together and play with when I build my Field of Dreams...
The list is actually a "thank you" list, and personally is more down to earth than a Bucket list. Sure, you can dream and have goals, but often we miss amazing surroundings because we are dreaming of the goal instead of being in the present and smelling the flowers.
I love when my Salvatore Ferragamo ties blow in the wind,
while I drive my Saab 900 convertible with the top down.
But that's only when I'm not loving my Alfa Romeo GTV 2000, the Lamborghini Miura, and the Ferrari 308 GTB.
I love my Noguchi coffee tables and Nakashima dining tables with their artisanal wabi-sabi aesthetics, when prominently displaying Haruki Murakami novels. After admiring them I check the time on my Japanese (Seiko) watch.
When not salivating over Italian ties, Japanese watches, Italian Sports cars, and Japanese furniture displaying Japanese novels, I love the pungent smell of Italian churches serving guanciale, aglio olio, bucatini alle vongole, and sfogliatella.
When playing catch with a baseball (No other small package comes as close to the ideal in design and utility), and while wearing my Rawlings “Heart of the Hide” glove, I love how the parathyroid hormone maintains my calcium homeostasis so my hand bones don't shatter and send me to the ER.
So interesting how much of this list reflects the time, place, and circumstances of one’s life. How in some ways we are taught to love the things we do by forces we can only fleetingly perceive. How our social milieu and our personality interact and cause us to appreciate the things we do. To think how different, or how similar, this list would look if we were born 100 years ago or 100 years hence. How it’s maybe not what we love but just the fact of loving that really matters.
I like the idea of baseball. I love strawberry rhubarb pie. And I don't even like pie all that much. Coffee with a physical paper. Watching "Andor" with my husband, who normally doesn't even like "some space sh1t" :-).
I love starting Sunday with a piece of writing that awakens the love and gratitude within me. Thank you!
I love Adam Cifu's writing :). (And human-centered approach to medicine ;). Thanks for sharing (both)!
This is wonderful! While I don’t recognize over half the things on the list (as a benighted Canadian, I am not privy to the gnosis of baseball), I think that what was refreshing about this was how *humane* it was.
During the course of my training, I’ve become a father several times over - a wonderful confluence of events, certainly, but one that has left me without much time or mental bandwidth to engage in more humane pursuits. I look forward very much to reclaiming my time when my training comes to an end.
One recent joy has been slowly working my way through some classic literature, so perhaps it’s fitting to end with:
I love a Tale of Two Cities
I love War and Peace
I love PG Wodehouse
I love my kids
Peace of Christ to you, Dr Cifu. I really do appreciate your writing.
PH Wodhouse…amen.
I’m glad you’re a fellow Wodehouse fan. I read a book jacket endorsement on one of his books that talked about him as a “musician of the English language”, and I think that’s exactly right.
He uses words like Mozart uses notes. Everything is light, rambunctious, rollicking, but somehow crystalline and perfectly timed. I’ve read enough of his stuff to see that the plot essentially repeats itself over and over again, but like variations on a theme, it almost always feels like something worth listening to, for the pure joy of the experience. Wodehouse is unique in that you could read a collection of sentences taken at random from any of his works, in almost any order, and enjoy it simply for the music of his prose.
Anyways - you’ve triggered a flight of fancy for me, which I appreciate. Thanks again.
I love the NYY from 1978 too! Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Henderson, Nettles, Munson, and all those players that I hope I can get together and play with when I build my Field of Dreams...
The list is actually a "thank you" list, and personally is more down to earth than a Bucket list. Sure, you can dream and have goals, but often we miss amazing surroundings because we are dreaming of the goal instead of being in the present and smelling the flowers.
Great memories!
I can’t stand the idea of a bucket list but I never knew why. Maybe you just articulated it. Nettles was my favorite.
TI AMO, VARIAZIONI SU UN TEMA
I love when my Salvatore Ferragamo ties blow in the wind,
while I drive my Saab 900 convertible with the top down.
But that's only when I'm not loving my Alfa Romeo GTV 2000, the Lamborghini Miura, and the Ferrari 308 GTB.
I love my Noguchi coffee tables and Nakashima dining tables with their artisanal wabi-sabi aesthetics, when prominently displaying Haruki Murakami novels. After admiring them I check the time on my Japanese (Seiko) watch.
When not salivating over Italian ties, Japanese watches, Italian Sports cars, and Japanese furniture displaying Japanese novels, I love the pungent smell of Italian churches serving guanciale, aglio olio, bucatini alle vongole, and sfogliatella.
When playing catch with a baseball (No other small package comes as close to the ideal in design and utility), and while wearing my Rawlings “Heart of the Hide” glove, I love how the parathyroid hormone maintains my calcium homeostasis so my hand bones don't shatter and send me to the ER.
You, sir, are a saint!
So interesting how much of this list reflects the time, place, and circumstances of one’s life. How in some ways we are taught to love the things we do by forces we can only fleetingly perceive. How our social milieu and our personality interact and cause us to appreciate the things we do. To think how different, or how similar, this list would look if we were born 100 years ago or 100 years hence. How it’s maybe not what we love but just the fact of loving that really matters.
So well said.
I made a list like this too! Although, I called them "simple delights" instead of "loves". "Delight" is an easier, happier mental category for me
I like the idea of baseball. I love strawberry rhubarb pie. And I don't even like pie all that much. Coffee with a physical paper. Watching "Andor" with my husband, who normally doesn't even like "some space sh1t" :-).
💜