In my last blog I let you know that I was planning to have surgery next month. But last week my surgeon had a cancellation, so my surgery was moved up a bit to Wednesday March 27.  I’m writing this blog the evening before the surgery because I don’t know how well I will be able to write (and type) while I’m recovering.

If you are reading this blog it means that surgery went well and I’m home getting better.  It also means that I’ve written and posted a blog every week since August, 2013 – more than 285 weeks in a row.

I want to say “Thank You” to each of you for your well wishes.  One reader wrote that he’s rooting for a positive outcome because he would like to continue reading my blog for many years.  I’ll take that.  I hope to write it for many, many more years to come.

And I very much appreciate everyone who reached out to me today.  My spirits are high and my outlook is positive.  For years I’ve trained myself not to worry about anything I can’t control.  This is one of those times.

I’ll be back next week with an update to this saga.

Here’s to a happy ending.

Thank you.

Alan

For most of my life I have enjoyed excellent health, and I still do.  However, one morning in mid-December I woke up with what was diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands.  Bummer.  All of my fingers tingle and have lost some sensitivity.  This makes both typing and buttoning my shirt more difficult.  As the song goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

With this moment-to-moment reminder that my hands are working less than perfectly, I have designated the months of January, February, and March as Alan Body Appreciation Months.  I appreciate when my hands were working properly.  I fully realize, of course, that like every other human being my appreciation is likely to be transformed into “taking-for granted” once the problem is solved.

As it turns out, the issue with my hands is caused by spinal stenosis in my upper neck, where a bundle of nerves are being squeezed by growth of bone in my spinal tunnel.  The solution is neck surgery to relieve the nerves by opening the tunnel a little wider and putting in spacers.  This is one of the few times in my life that I wish I knew more than I do about the human body, but the next best thing is that my son and his wife are both doctors, and they have offered me the benefit of their advice.

I know two contemporaries who have had successful spinal surgery during the past six months, so why should mine be different? I‘m younger than they are and have a less serious problem.  I also follow the adage, “Expect the best but plan for the worst.”

So in a day or two I’ll be scheduling surgery for early next month.  Before then I’ll make sure my estate plan is entirely up to date, and I’ll write a few extra blogs to continue posting every Tuesday morning as I have for more than five years.

In a few weeks, I’ll let you know how it went.  I have no doubt that everything will work out well.

Alan

On Sunday morning I often watch talk shows.  Today one show featured a Stanford University professor who stated that human beings are hard wired to have an “Us vs. Them” mentality. When we view photos of people who look different from us, a part of our brain lights up with a “danger” warning.  Tinder, a dating app, is similarly based on someone’s reaction to a photo.  Presumably people only swipe right when they are attracted to a photo and swipe left if the person in the photo triggers a danger response.

That makes sense to me.  After all, thousands of years ago we lived in tribes of 150 people, who were possibly the only human beings we would ever know during our lifetimes.  Everyone else in the world was a stranger and, as such, potentially dangerous.

But are we doomed to a lifetime of us vs. them?  Will it always be Americans against everyone else?  Californians against the rest of the United States? USC Trojans against the world, especially UCLA?  (I have degrees from USC but I have married graduates of UCLA, and even if self-preservation was not an issue I have found them to be decent people.)

From my perspective I’m the only “me” in the world and everyone else is an alien.  They are looking out for their own interests, and I am looking out for mine.

But that said, we still need to cooperate.  In fact, cooperation may be our greatest survival skill.  How else could we create a pencil, let alone an airplane?

Just as I was able to put aside my “us vs. them” Trojan mentality when I married, I believe our individual success depends entirely upon cooperation rather than antagonism. This is especially true as we huddle together in ever expanding cities (I read an estimate today that 70% of the world’s population in 2050 will live in an urban environment).

I root for USC sports teams, but my favorite part of every game is when the members of each team shake hands afterward.  It proves that we can be competitors and friends at the same time.  Let’s remember – the competition in a sporting event is just something we created to amuse ourselves.

It may be in our nature to distrust others, especially strangers. But maybe that aspect of our psychology is the reason we have the golden rule?  (Not the one that says “He or she with the gold rules.”)

As I wrote in People Tools, “We are each human, with all that label implies.  …[You can have] the best of a life, which is, alternately and simultaneously, both ridiculous and sublime.”

In the words of Rodney King, “People, I just want to say… can we all JUST get along? Can we get along?”

I’ll bet that we can.

Alan