"First, do no harm -
Second, revere the healing powers of nature"

The phrase above has historically been attributed to Hippocrates, the 'Father of Medicine' who is credited with revolutionizing medicine in Ancient Greece. Fielding Garrison, an authority on medical history, states in his landmark text An Introduction to the History of Medicine, "He is, above all, the exemplar of that flexible, critical, well-poised attitude of mind, ever on the lookout for sources of error, which is the very essence of the scientific spirit". Hippocrates believed that the body must be treated as a whole and not a series of parts, and that   "natural forces within us are the true healers of disease".

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I've become a "Seinfeld" fan since it's been in syndication. I didn't really enjoy it when it was first on TV, but now I fully appreciate it. Have you ever seen the "Seinfeld" episode in which George Costanza is trying to keep his "worlds" - his love life and his life as "one of the guys" with Jerry and Kramer and Elaine - separate? He's concerned that his "worlds will collide", thereby ruining a good thing.

I bring this up because a similar thing has happened to me recently - an episode in which two very divergent parts of my world collided in a very surreal fashion.

It all comes down to one particular address that brought it all out - 1109-B South Congress. For those of you who know me well, that's my new office address - within the walls of the South Congress Athletic Club. This brings me to my tale for today ...

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"Core training". Now there is a buzz phrase in the fitness and medical worlds these days. Apparently, everyone's got a core strength issue. You have a sore back? Must be caused by your weak core. Lousy golf game? Make your core stronger. Pain with sitting? Must be your weak abdominals. If you're involved with an active population - you've heard it a thousand times. Now you're hearing it with the sedentary population. Before long, core strengthening will be introduced as a solution to heart disease, stroke, and world hunger.

Well, maybe not heart disease - but I digress.

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It's time for a recollection or two. Today's topic: higher education.

Back in the day (i.e. when I was in high school in Canada), going to university wasn't a given. In high school, you were "tracked" into a university program or a college program. What, you say? Aren't they the same? No, actually, in Canada they aren't the same. University programs are oriented towards the attainment of a degree ... in the intellectual pursuit of "higher learning and education". Professional programs - doctors, lawyers, physiotherapists, dentists - those are all university programs. But so is the Bachelors in Arts focusing on Canadian history (a bit of a misnomer since we all know that Canada doesn't have much history - at least much that we are prepared to acknowledge!). The university setting is all about attaining a higher level of knowledge in something - and, frankly, it's not for everyone. It's for the best students, those with the highest grades, those who have the greatest potential to expand and add to the knowledge base, the research base, the development and enhancement of what we as a species know.

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