I got this quote from A Word a Day. and it got me thinking.

Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment — the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is. -Jorge Luis Borges, writer (1899-1986)

It is funny that I am still figuring out who I am. I am still battling with being a husband, a scientist, a leader, a student, a teacher, and what those things all mean to me. It’s tough. so many definitions of those things have changed for me as my world view has gotten broader and my world (read family and friend circles) have gotten smaller.

My definition and appreciation of love has changed considerably.(Thanks Alma, Sokka, Neji) My definition of love both given and received.The way I see the silences that protect others’ feelings to the statements that hurt now to protect later.

My understanding of science is still evolving. Not just in the performance of good science with the ethical responsibility and legal and social ramifications and not just the hard protocols and statistical analyses. I am seeing the strains and tensions more and more between good and science. What makes a good scientist? What makes a good scientist a good person? What can make a good person a good scientist? Can they ever be mutually exclusive? Can a person profess (do you see a pun?) themselves to be a good scientist if their work does not contribute to a good (read kindness/benefit to an external recipient/altruism)?

There can be no doubt that I want to be a leader of the kind that gives everyone around me the encouragement to be better. I do my best to lead by example. One of my biggest struggles however is knowing when to give up. I am stubborn. For the most part it works out for me. I find a way to do what I feel must be done (https://www.facebook.com/groups/BEINGScience/, or the Coral nursery). I am realizing through the lives of others and my own experience however, that this is not always the case. Is it ok once in awhile to give up? to take a break? to pass the buck? If so, how do we stop it from becoming habit? Can I still consider myself a leader if I do one day just stop?

Finally, I feel everything I do is learning and teaching. I hope to teach all I learn to someone else. I learn to love well so I can show others how I would like to be loved and to help them to love others. In all things Science I want to teach younger scientists to do conduct science ethically, soundly, thoroughly. I want to teach all who follow me to lead. But I have to learn everything first.

Thanks for reading. Follow the blog.

A quote from me for you.

Teach everything you learn. Learn everything you teach. -Ancilleno O. Davis July 9th, 2014

Ancilleno DavisFounder-BEINGS
(Bahamians Educated In Natural and Geospatial Sciences)
Director at Large – SCSCB
(Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds
www.scscb.org
Doctoral student- Miami University, Oxford, Ohio