On the flight done here, I started reading “The Audacity of Hope” by Barak Obama. One section was particularly interesting which was discussing the return of politics from being about “business” to a “mission.” Coming here helps me reconnect with my mission. It help refuel the creative and intellectual juice. On day one we learned that 30 year veteran of the field Bob Flaws is retiring. Bob runs Blue Poppy Press and has been influential in providing good quality herbs as well as literature to the Chinese Medical community.
In his afternoon lecture he shared his Hallelujah Symptoms. These are signs that only mean one thing when seen clinically. A couple notables include night blindness and blurred vision which always indicate blood deficiency. While this class was interesting, I would have found it more useful a few years earlier in practice. As a side note we learned that Eric Brand will be taking over Bob’s business. We made sure to say hi to him at his booth after class. He’s speaking today, and I’d love to hear what he has to say. It is at the same time as Lonny Jarret though, we’ll see.
Ted Kaptchuck, author of the first book I ever read about Chinese Medicine spoke yesterday. What a character. His lecture about Cinnamon Twig Soup and couldn’t have been more different than Bob. All and all a great experience so far. There’s so much diversity in this profession!