Joy and discovery are inseparable from academic commitment

Dervish Thoughts

Whirlwind mind:

Sic transit gloria mundi

Handsome present (absent joy)

A sudden look – a wish:

Air, fire, high!

Ad infinitum please!

A dance, a light, sunrise,

Crazy spring, an awkward move,

Warm, sweet life,

An insane tango!

Few people know that I write poetry … until today that is. Although I have published poems and other writing before, I have kept this activity separate from my life as a researcher and a physician. When I was honored by the invitation to write this profile for Endocrine-Related Cancer, I decided that it was time to reveal my nonscientific writings to this audience. The truth of the matter is that the arts, and especially the classics, poetry, and music (opera in particular) have had a profound influence on my life, along with the outdoors, since I was a child. With time, I have realized that the wisdom that comes with exposure to the arts and the observations one makes in the outdoors feed my excitement with search and discovery in science, as well as provide unparalleled balance for soul and body, beyond mens sana in corpore sano, and closer near absolute nirvana. I am often lost in my thoughts, running in parks, forests, city streets, or along the beach (shown in the picture) – it is not unusual for me to plan my next experiment or clinical study, design a protocol, outline talks or whole manuscripts, while running. Often, the words of a poem or an essay that I have read interrupt other thoughts, typically triggered by something I see. I am then mystified by the beauty of nature but also by people and their works; it is this ‘whirlwind’ that I tried to capture in the poem that I call ‘Dervish thoughts’. The asceticism and austerity of …