editorial
Brent K. Sugimoto, MD, MPH, AAHIVS, FAAFP
Embracing the Change that Seasons Bring As I write this, it is just now officially fall. Here in the Bay Area, it is a lovely time. At the bookends of the day, fog descends to cap the hills of the East Bay in velvety, diaphanous grey. The air is crisp, and the autumnal sunlight has a sideways brilliance that provides a new perspective on familiar surroundings. Lately, I am always appreciative when I can have a new perspective. The change of the seasons offers a new way to see things, and that, amidst the doomscrolling that is the news these days, is a gift.
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In perennially sunny California, we look to signs in fall for the texture of our winter: wet or dry? One-minute navy showers (if you are familiar with navy showers, then either you’ve had a naval career or you’re truly a Californian!) or luxuriating in enveloping liquid warmth and head clearing steam? Flush with abandon or continue contemplating when yellow is yellow enough? We know with winter’s arrival, there will be change, but in California, trust no one who claims to predict our winter weather. Nothing is certain. The future is unwritten.
At the most recent COD, all five candidates who ran for the AAFP Board of Directors were women. Our candidates for president were a Black woman and international medical graduate, and a Black gay man from the military. These are historic events for family medicine, and were the culmination of many years of assiduous, concerted work to shape the leadership of our specialty. You can be proud that California family physicians have been part of this movement at all levels of organized medicine.
Uncertainty leaves the possibility for change, and if things can change, they can be better.
At this year’s AAFP Congress of Delegates (COD), departing board chair Dr. Gary LeRoy exhorted us to embrace change as a force to “push, pull, and drag our specialty to the future.” Californian family physicians have long made this advice their praxis and have helped to move the AAFP forward on many issues vital to our patients and practices, such as medical aid in dying, race-based medicine, reproductive health, and immigrant health.
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California Family Physician Fall 2021
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I do not know how the fall will turn this year, and in the context of the past one and half years of pandemic, I’ve come to realize that this uncertainty fills me with optimistic anticipation. Uncertainty leaves the possibility for change, and if things can change, they can be better. The future will not be free of challenges, but neither is it predestined. The future is our opportunity, if we choose to engage it.
To propel this progress further, I am excited that former CAFP president, Dr. Jay Lee has announced his campaign for the Board of Directors at the AAFP COD in the fall of 2022.
Jay is one of the family physicians who helped ignite and cultivate this movement of family medicine leaders. If you have ever chanted or tweeted for the #FMRevolution, then you know the work of Jay, its progenitor. He encouraged me and many others to seek leadership and convinced us of the worth of our perspectives in medicine. Jay has given me many lessons on leading from one’s own values, which for him include a commitment to patients, a commitment to service and a commitment to equity, along with the conviction of family medicine’s central role in creating a more just world for our patients. I encourage you to check out Jay’s campaign at the website FMRising.com (launching soon) and through social media with the hashtag #FMRising. I think you will be inspired by Jay’s vision for what our specialty can be. This is the last issue of California Family Physician for the year, which means that 2022 is already right around the corner. I hope you find your own reasons for optimism with the changing of the seasons. Best wishes these next couple of months, and we will see what the new year brings!
