When I was in high school, I was a self-professed “math and science geek”. Well, perhaps I didn’t use the word “geek” as such, but my grades made it quite apparent that that was where my academic strengths were at the time. In contrast, English was my worst subject. English always consisted of reading books that someone told me were important or epic that usually ended up being irrelevant or downright boring. This always ended up in a litany of book reviews and reports.

And then there was my senior year – and the much-dreaded Canadian literature class.

At the time, I was convinced that “Canadian literature” was a bit of a misnomer. As a high school senior with an interest in calculus and physics, it was hard to fathom many Canadian authors worth studying. But it was in this same class that we were given an assignment to either write a book review of a Canadian author of your choice, or to select a Canadian musician and review their lyrical content. Suddenly, writing had some degree of personal relevance. This got me to explore my thoughts on issues relevant to my world, and to do so on the written page. I discovered that the writing process was, well, almost enjoyable.

I can’t say that I started off writing because it was something that I felt a natural talent or inclination to do. But now, I am thankful that it is a part of my daily world. So now I am left to ask – why do I write?

There are too many distractions in our world that readily assail us at any juncture. Whether it’s work, or life, or relationships, or family, or any combination, it’s easy to get caught up in the “stuff”. Suddenly, stuff drives your day. And as they say, don’t sweat the small stuff, right? Well, a lot of stuff suddenly makes your day full of cognitive stress.

It is no small wonder that I don’t run with an iPod or mp3 player, simply because I find this to be a great time to get away from all the distractions of daily life. The peacefulness of hearing my feet strike the ground, my breathing, and then, my thoughts. And then – the moment. That precious moment. And another. And another. It’s almost like a string of pearls – each moment beautiful of it’s own accord, strung together one by one. A time when all stands still, when stuff just doesn’t matter, but the moment does.

Today’s 3M half marathon was a great reminder of how running provides us not only with an environment in which to "let go”, but also a metaphor for life as we know it. This metaphor also stands to remind us of how we err in daily life, and how we can excel.

Even when you know that stuff happens, that distractions rule your existence, it’s a challenge to rectify it. It is so hard to simply “be in the moment” and to let go of our attachment to emotions, drama, angst, anger, frustration, discontent, and a plethora of unpleasant stuff. And let’s face it – can you be self-actualized when you are chasing stuff around all day?

As of today’s Supreme Court decision, we have an even greater mess brewing in our electoral process. In the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission decision, the Supreme Court put up a hockey score vote of 5 – 4 to remove limits on corporate campaign spending. If we didn’t already have enough money being thrown at politicians to bend their ears on issues from immigration to health care to abortion, we now have even more.

In the decision, it was stated by Justice Anthony Kennedy that “"when government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought.”

I didn’t just read this, did I? Imagine, if you will, Corporation A (or Special Interest Z) with big budget, seeking support from Legislator B, “offering” to produce ads etc denouncing Legislator C, in return for “consideration” of their “policy suggestions”.

Hold on a second. I respectfully disagree with the Supreme Court decision. Fortunately, my First Amendment rights allow me to do so. Whew. Something about this whole thing just doesn’t make sense. A 100-year-old policy – gone – as quickly as it takes to say “Holy Campaign Finance Reform, Batman”.

I think it’s safe to say that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has opened an interesting can of worms recently at a rather inopportune moment. They have published what is, to my understanding, an evidence-based report on screening for breast cancer, including the use of mammograms. Emotional topic, without a doubt.

There have been some rather extreme responses as can often be expected when the discussion is driven by emotion. This discussion is taking place at a time when the current health care reform climate is volatile at best. People have already started proclaiming that “this is rationing of care – and exactly what health care reform is going to do”, “this will prevent women from getting the care they need”, and “hell yes, as a doctor I am still going to perform them regardless of what the study says”.

Let’s make sure that we understand the conclusions of the report.  All suggestions are given a grade that reflects the level or degree of recommendation. Recommendations are just that – recommendations, not demands or rules.

The part that seems to have everyone outraged is this:

Thirty-something bowl games later. That’s a whole lot of football. And, frankly, much ado over nothing. Another year of college football ends in turmoil. Sure, there was a “national championship” game, and yes, there was a winner of this “national championship” game. But when the best bowl game was the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl, you really have to wonder about the state of the post-season.

As an aside, the Humanitarian Bowl had Idaho edging Bowling Green 43 – 42. The fourth quarter was, without doubt, the most entertaining (and refreshing) 15 minutes of football all year. With the game tied at 35, Bowling Green scored a touchdown with 32 seconds left. Score: Bowling Green 42, Idaho 35. Idaho then stormed back to score a touchdown with 4 ticks left on the clock, making it 42 – 41. In perhaps the gutsiest coaching move I’ve seen in a long time, Idaho went for the two point conversion – and made it – to win 43 – 42. Now that’s not something that even Les Miles or Nick Saban would do.

Games like this would be commonplace if college football had a playoff. It is laughable that the NCAA continues to claim that the BCS is “in the best interest of the universities”. As it stands, there are 34 bowl games, which means that 68 of 120 schools are in a bowl game. Most of these bowl games have incredibly low attendance. If this is what is “in the best interest of the universities”, then it’s kind of like being in elementary school and everyone getting participation awards because “everyone’s a winner”. And if that is the case, there is a lot of money being invested in college football so that “everyone is a winner”. Yeah right.

Now that we have the benefit of having watched a few bowl games, and having established who showed up and who didn’t, let’s take one final look at December Delirium, and find us a real national champion. The good ‘ole fashioned way – on the field.