WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.140 --> 00:00:10.770 align:middle line:84% As you heard, I have another life as a physician. 00:00:10.770 --> 00:00:15.430 align:middle line:84% And when I think about my decision to become a doctor, 00:00:15.430 --> 00:00:20.670 align:middle line:84% I realize I was pretty much an unlikely candidate for success 00:00:20.670 --> 00:00:21.930 align:middle line:90% in the medical profession. 00:00:21.930 --> 00:00:24.180 align:middle line:84% And that has to do, I think, with a number 00:00:24.180 --> 00:00:28.630 align:middle line:84% of different identities that I occupy, if you will. 00:00:28.630 --> 00:00:32.159 align:middle line:84% And when I think back to those days of thinking about becoming 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84% a physician and this dream I had of becoming a doc, 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:37.050 align:middle line:84% I remember first thinking that my faith would 00:00:37.050 --> 00:00:39.960 align:middle line:84% be a kind of problem for me, that I didn't really 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:41.820 align:middle line:84% see much in the way of a spiritual life 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:42.840 align:middle line:90% among physicians. 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:47.110 align:middle line:84% And I thought that might really be difficult for me. 00:00:47.110 --> 00:00:49.470 align:middle line:84% And then, of course, was the fact of my ethnic identity. 00:00:49.470 --> 00:00:52.830 align:middle line:84% And I didn't unfortunately, have many Latino role 00:00:52.830 --> 00:00:55.830 align:middle line:84% models to inspire me to a career in medicine. 00:00:55.830 --> 00:00:59.040 align:middle line:84% And I thought that might pose its own set of obstacles 00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:02.340 align:middle line:84% and barriers to becoming a physician. 00:01:02.340 --> 00:01:04.269 align:middle line:84% And then of course, is the fact that I'm gay. 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:06.930 align:middle line:84% And I experienced at a pretty young age, homophobia 00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:09.990 align:middle line:84% in doctor's offices, that made me pretty convinced 00:01:09.990 --> 00:01:13.680 align:middle line:84% that would actually perhaps be the largest kind of obstacle 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:16.620 align:middle line:84% to this dream I had of becoming a physician. 00:01:16.620 --> 00:01:18.570 align:middle line:84% And then as it turned out, when I finally 00:01:18.570 --> 00:01:20.340 align:middle line:84% did get to Harvard Medical School, 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:23.905 align:middle line:84% it was the fact that I was a poet that was so problematic. 00:01:23.905 --> 00:01:26.280 align:middle line:84% All of these other things that I'd been so worried about, 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:28.270 align:middle line:84% turned out not to be such a big deal. 00:01:28.270 --> 00:01:30.840 align:middle line:84% But now being a poet, that was really freaky. 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:35.820 align:middle line:84% And I always tell that story with a sense of irony. 00:01:35.820 --> 00:01:41.040 align:middle line:84% Because honestly, my engagement with language and with poetry 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:44.340 align:middle line:84% has tremendously enriched my practice of medicine. 00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:47.800 align:middle line:84% And I can't imagine doing one without the other. 00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:49.840 align:middle line:84% And so with that is a little preamble. 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:52.500 align:middle line:84% I thought I'd read this next poem, which in some ways 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:54.690 align:middle line:84% I think, locates me in relation to some 00:01:54.690 --> 00:01:56.220 align:middle line:90% of these various identities. 00:01:56.220 --> 00:01:58.560 align:middle line:84% And in the poem you'll see a little bit 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.890 align:middle line:84% of my old neighborhood back in Boston. 00:02:01.890 --> 00:02:07.853 align:middle line:84% So it will perhaps give you a sense of that as well. 00:02:07.853 --> 00:02:09.270 align:middle line:84% This is a poem called "The Failure 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:12.870 align:middle line:90% of Empathy on Center Street." 00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:15.540 align:middle line:84% "On Center Street, one finds it all-- 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:20.880 align:middle line:84% the art of Africa, a lesbian cafe, the Cuban Puerto Rican 00:02:20.880 --> 00:02:24.870 align:middle line:84% mini-mart, and even past the post office, lilacs 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:29.520 align:middle line:84% drooped by heavy blooms, their fragrance everywhere. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:32.100 align:middle line:84% It spring in Boston in this neighborhood 00:02:32.100 --> 00:02:36.780 align:middle line:84% that has a name part tropical, but skewed Midwest, Jamaica 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:39.810 align:middle line:84% Plain, which sounds as odd as what I've gathered 00:02:39.810 --> 00:02:41.910 align:middle line:90% in these bags for lunch-- 00:02:41.910 --> 00:02:46.950 align:middle line:84% Tostones, sushi, flavor of the day, one scoop from JP Licks, 00:02:46.950 --> 00:02:50.430 align:middle line:84% and a huge bunch of blushing grapes. 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:55.200 align:middle line:84% So plentiful, yet scarce what one can find on Center Street. 00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:58.020 align:middle line:84% It's all the poor can do to feed themselves 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:01.050 align:middle line:90% from what I might discard. 00:03:01.050 --> 00:03:05.280 align:middle line:84% A woman in a shawl that looks Peruvian stares hungrily my way 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.700 align:middle line:84% and calls in Spanish with her stoic voice. 00:03:08.700 --> 00:03:11.460 align:middle line:84% She's stationed just beside the lilacs, 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:14.160 align:middle line:84% holds a clutch of single roses wrapped 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:16.770 align:middle line:90% in gold fringed cellophane. 00:03:16.770 --> 00:03:20.610 align:middle line:84% The prostitute with AIDS, her name is Gloria, I think. 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:22.830 align:middle line:84% She asked me for a sandwich once, 00:03:22.830 --> 00:03:26.160 align:middle line:84% some apple juice, ducks quick behind the dumpster, 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:30.690 align:middle line:84% smoking crack, as plentiful as ever on the street. 00:03:30.690 --> 00:03:34.710 align:middle line:84% One really can get anything right here on Center Street-- 00:03:34.710 --> 00:03:39.780 align:middle line:84% AIDS, frozen yogurt, pills, a bunch of seedless grapes, 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:45.390 align:middle line:84% a can of beer, a rose in cellophane for $0.50. 00:03:45.390 --> 00:03:47.820 align:middle line:84% A homeboy blasting rap outside the bank 00:03:47.820 --> 00:03:50.910 align:middle line:84% is waiting for his test results, perhaps. 00:03:50.910 --> 00:03:53.070 align:middle line:84% The clinic, which is free next door, 00:03:53.070 --> 00:03:55.920 align:middle line:84% still lacks the space for waiting rooms with ambience 00:03:55.920 --> 00:03:58.890 align:middle line:84% more hip and private than the safer sex meets 00:03:58.890 --> 00:04:04.740 align:middle line:84% velveteen of chairs and crowded halls with tacked up posters. 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:08.100 align:middle line:84% Wondering what's next, I chew my sushi sullenly 00:04:08.100 --> 00:04:12.030 align:middle line:84% and think, what did we see in Center Street. 00:04:12.030 --> 00:04:15.570 align:middle line:84% It's all much older dykes who stay at home and dark 00:04:15.570 --> 00:04:18.180 align:middle line:84% Dominicans and Mexicans who sell whatever 00:04:18.180 --> 00:04:20.490 align:middle line:90% they can get their hands on. 00:04:20.490 --> 00:04:24.420 align:middle line:84% AIDS is their disease these days, not ours. 00:04:24.420 --> 00:04:27.240 align:middle line:84% The men shoot drugs or sleep with prostitutes, 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:29.760 align:middle line:84% then give it to their wives and kids. 00:04:29.760 --> 00:04:34.140 align:middle line:84% I want to move away from here until this anger fades. 00:04:34.140 --> 00:04:39.000 align:middle line:84% A bus groans by and belching fumes, a vast black comma 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.940 align:middle line:90% punctuation to my irk. 00:04:41.940 --> 00:04:44.970 align:middle line:84% It dissipates as promptly as its past. 00:04:44.970 --> 00:04:47.850 align:middle line:84% And when it's gone I realize it then 00:04:47.850 --> 00:04:52.950 align:middle line:84% that Center Street is anything but one community in isolation. 00:04:52.950 --> 00:04:54.840 align:middle line:90% All of us belong here. 00:04:54.840 --> 00:04:57.810 align:middle line:84% Any could be stunned by positive results, 00:04:57.810 --> 00:05:03.670 align:middle line:84% win lotteries, lose everything because the bank foreclosed. 00:05:03.670 --> 00:05:06.010 align:middle line:84% Impatiently, I count the languages 00:05:06.010 --> 00:05:10.150 align:middle line:84% I overhear, almost convinced the breeze that whistles gently 00:05:10.150 --> 00:05:14.260 align:middle line:84% through the lilacs is the single song that once was known, 00:05:14.260 --> 00:05:17.500 align:middle line:84% both sound and scent, its message 00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:22.030 align:middle line:84% unequivocal and its polite refusal to be drowned. 00:05:22.030 --> 00:05:24.190 align:middle line:90% Your heart is human. 00:05:24.190 --> 00:05:26.640 align:middle line:90% Never let it close. 00:05:26.640 --> 00:05:28.000 align:middle line:90%