Learning New Things All the Time

In my challenge to get outside my comfortable box of fiction, I picked up Ben Carson's book, Gifted Hands. For those of you who don't know, Ben Carson is a world renowned doctor who specialized in neurosurgery and gained significant fame for separating Siamese twins that were joined at the head. I didn't know. This is, obviously, not my field of expertise or (typically) interest. But my husband's twin just went through an intensive brain surgery called a hemispherectomy that Dr Carson helped establish as a viable surgical option to decrease seizures, and I wanted to know more, both about the surgery and about the man who made it a possibility. And surprisingly, I really enjoyed reading about Dr Carson. I didn't even get lost in all the medical terminology, and I actually read (without skimming) the parts when he detailed the surgeries. Yes, I'm proud of myself.

On the whole, I find Dr Carson to be an inspiration. He speaks honestly in his biography about the challenges that he faced growing up as a black kid in Detroit and the racism that he had to confront as a doctor, but he doesn't indulge in whining or self-pity. Instead he saw adversity as a challenge to better himself and set himself up to be the best that he could possibly be with God's help. And he succeeded--brilliantly.

I was talking with the Man about Dr Carson last night, and we had a long discussion about Seventh Day Adventists (which was what Dr Carson was), and the Man filled me in some on what Seventh Day Adventists believe since I had no clue. While theologically they are evidently off, what I read in Gifted Hands about Ben Carson's relationship with the Lord encouraged me greatly. I do hope that he had a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ and one day I'll get to see him in heaven. In the meantime, I'm just glad I read his book and now feel significantly more intelligent and medically savvy. Although I guess the words "savvy" and "medical" should never be in the same sentence. Maybe "intelligent" shouldn't be in there with "savvy" either.