a shout out to my little bro

my brother and i have had a complicated relationship over the years, usually characterized by a lack of communication and closeness. i'm not really sure why, though i blamed it on our being 4 yrs apart and different genders. i'm not convinced that's really the cause of our historical lack of friendliness, however. i remember (not so fondly) back when he was a first-yr undergraduate at UI, living on the honor's student floor in his dorm, that he told me how he and "all the other students" on that floor were conservative, and that i shouldn't be so surprised, since "smart people tend to be conservative since they are easily able to earn their keep rather than have someone hand it to them" (as, i guess, liberals advocate). it was at this point that i recognized him as a tiny incarnate of my father, and that we would most likely have little in common in the years to come. fast forward to november 9th, 2007, and adam is currently romping around rural towns outside of moscow, russia, dressed as a clown, providing free medical care to orphans with the real-life patch adams. huh? yes, change is a beautiful thing. while he followed his dream to enter into the MD/PhD program at UI, he is using his education and privilege to do good for kids, both in Iowa and now abroad. he has volunteered a lot of his time at camps for kids with cancer, working at the free clinic between med school committments, and also volunteering at the hospital to hang out with kids with cancer, cheering them up and helping them through tough tests. i see new life in him that was hidden before, and we've become closer in the past year. i shouldn't be so surprised, i guess, since most people make radical changes in those undergraduate years. but i couldn't be more pleased to see my own brother make the changes he has. i commend his humanity and goals, so here's a shout out to you, little bro.
p.s. anyone interested in the work he's doing with patch adams, through his Gesundheit institute, can check out this: http://www.patchadams.org/campaign/hospital-paper
the part that says..."For 18 years I've taken thirty clowns from all over the world to Russia for two weeks of clowning in hospitals, orphanages, prisons and nursing homes, as well as airports, subways, streets and hotels. Ten years ago this led to our getting involved in the care of orphans in Russia in work that is now recognized all over." Um, yeah, that's what he's doing. the whole column on this page is interesting in terms of healthcare visions. shocking at times, but interesting--probably especially to those of you in the healthcare field.