remix: notes outside the margin by a medical student seeking truth

I've decided to remix sidenote. Now it's, "notes outside the margin by a medical student seeking the truth." Part of what I originally wanted to establish through sidenote was a set of core themes for my life.  After sorting through all sorts of ideas for two years, I want to give sidenote a more distinct flavor.  I figure the main ideas I have to contribute will be as a married, early 20's, hippy-Christian, MD/PhD student, so for the time being I'm trying to focus sidenote on life during med school.  Anyways, the inagural post of sidenote v2.0 will be the updated "about" page.  Enjoy,

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"Humanity, which they loved as we did – was for them something complete that must be maintained and protected.  For us, humanity was a distant goal toward which all men were moving, whose image no one knew, whose laws were nowhere written down.”   - Max Demian

Sidenote is a concept originally invented in a summer email chain by Iyer, A* and Noguchi, K*, 2008. 

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Imagine you’re fourteen, puberty hormones are rushing through your veins, you’re stuck sitting in Sunday school, and all you can think about is sex.  The teacher is up there lecturing about Cain and Abel.  Abel was the good brother, Abel provided God with great offerings, Cain grew jealous, Cain murdered Abel, and in doing so he became the first human. 

You’re fourteen, so by now you’ve heard this story a million times, and you’re definitely zoning out.  Maybe your unconscious drifts off into that creative zone, and instead of writing in the margins, you start scribbling outside the margins, writing "Cain and Abel; The Remix". 

Behind closed doors, Abel had been threatening Cain and stealing his crops.  One day, Cain stood up for himself, fought back against his brother, and killed him.  Abel was everyone's homie, so everyone assumed Cain was the bad guy.  I’m not saying that’s the truth, but is it possible that there was more to it than the cut-and-dry story that everyone agrees on? 

Sidenote is about searching for the truth.  Sidenote believes that the truth is complex.  Sidenote believes you should listen to your heart.  What would the world look like if people took sidenotes seriously?

That is the sort of world Sidenote envisions.  It might be a better world, it might be a less productive world, it’s hard to say, but one thing is certain, it would be different.  At it’s core that’s all Sidenote envisions.  An alternative to the current reality.  

This blog chronicles my vain attempt to understand the truth.  I have chosen to discover the truth through marriage, medicine, relationships, Scrubs, Christianity, and basketball, so you'll mainly hear about those few topics.  They all have their ups and downs, but I believe they will eventually lead me to the truth.  At the very least, I'm hoping to become JD from Scrubs.

If you haven't had enough, read "about me!"

See you on the other side,

from ken

(*both authors contributed equally to this work)