As I wander around the Monterey Jazz Festival on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I am relaxed and lulled into a mood of universal love by the gentle strains of a harp from Mali on my right and the distant strains of Peruvian panpipes on my left.

Soon, another concert on the main stage will start and pull me into who knows what state of emotional energy.  Music has such power to entrain our thoughts.  In fact, numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that our brainwaves are readily entrained, that is pulled into different states of consciousness, by different types of music.

Need to focus on your studies?  Listen to a Don Campbell Mozart compilation.

Need to relax?  Try Silvia Nakash and a light spray of lavender water on your scalp.

Brotherhood and generosity are on my mind as I walk by a booth near our KUSP booth and see that they are registering bone marrow donors.  It works like this: DKMS is the world’s largest bone marrow registry with over 2.6 million donors registered.  It takes 15 seconds to swab your cheek and send off a few skin cells.   It is analyzed for the surface markers on the white blood cells and entered into the database with your contact info. The registration is free.  What do you get?  The chance to someday save a life and how cool is that?

Bone marrow donation nowadays is no more painful that a peripheral blood draw.  It is the same process as any blood donation and then the blood is processed to separate out the white blood cells, including the stem cells.  The times in my almost 25 years as a physician which are among the most meaningful are, unsurprizingly, the times I have been privileged to save a human life.  Here is an opportunity for anyone to experience the same sense of personal validation and special significance:

Go to  www.dkmsamericas.org or www.GetSwabbed.org to learn more about how you can give to another special person the gift of life.