segunda-feira, 13 de maio de 2019

Point of View

The year was 2017. The day was December 4th. That day is still stuck in my head and I remember those events like if it was yesterday. I woke up very excited, as I usually am before conferences. It was the day of the biggest annual conference dedicated to Ophthalmology in Brazil (Conference of the University of São Paulo - USP). I was more anxious than normal and I associated this to two facts: Not only me and my collaborators had three scientific posters to be presented (which is already enough reason to be nervous), but also I was going to live in the USA for one year for reasons of sub specialization (what they call a Fellowship) - The latter was the biggest change I had in my life so far.

My flight was very early, at 6:20 am, and was the first departure from Santos Dumont Airport (Rio de Janeiro) to Congonhas (São Paulo). Unfortunately, the sky was grey, ugly and it was raining a little bit, which was not the weather that I was hoping for that day (laughs). One time I heard a story told by one of my oldest Kung Fu brothers (si hing Thiago Pereira), that one day our Si Fu (Senior Master Júlio Camacho) told him that life had no soundtrack. Maybe I can apply that here as well. Nature will not always behave the way we want it to. But then, as soon as the plane took up and raised in altitude, I had a big surprise. It is all about point of view.

This was what I saw. Not so ugly after all, eh?
I have heard my Si Fu's explanation multiple times about how we revisit some events or a situation that happened in the past with a different nature, and how our interpretation of that can be very different. I reminded myself of this event today, while speaking with my Si Fu over the telephone. He let me know that he was sick due to a reaction of a vaccine that he took a few days before. While I, as a physician, have read some articles about patients getting sick after taking a vaccine, it is a very rare event. We all know how vaccines have had a great impact in our survival and raised our life expectancy and so forth. Moreover, a 1% chance of having an adverse event after getting a shot of vaccine is still too low, and the benefits far outweigh the possible risks.

Well, that is, if you are not the 1 in 100 people that got the disease, as if you are, your odds change to 100%. Then again, point of view. Life and Kung Fu mimic each other in ways that are very hard to explain. But timing, reference, momentum...this is all present in what we do in Ving Tsun. And there is no doubt that these are also present in life. It is all a question of being in the right place, putting the right energy and being able to read and make the best interpretation of what other people are telling you. And I have to say, Kung Fu made me open my mind to a lot of stuff, including studying abroad and leaving my family here... but this is a story for another time.

Photography with my Si Fu moments before ministering the combat module in 2015.

I wish you a fast recovery, Si Fu.









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