KELLY ARDITO
moments
Matchmaker,
Matchmaker
AVERY DRONGOWSKI SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
NJP
(Nice Jewish Person)
Gary Kanner
Each month, The Well highlights an
amazing (and eligible!) individual.
The Well has agreed to share its
Q & As with these amazing singles
with the JN.
This month, The Well has a
conversation with NJP Gary Kanner.
26
August 16 • 2018
jn
Q
: What brought you to Metro Detroit?
GK: I came here for work! After I graduated
from medical school back home in West Virginia,
I “matched” into a three-year residency program in emer-
gency medicine in one of the busiest ERs in Detroit. So,
about a year ago, I packed up my things and my cat and
shlepped on up to Michigan to settle into a whole new
adventure in a state where I didn’t know a single person.
I’ve been having a total blast and have made some amaz-
ing friends.
Q: You spend your days working as an ER doctor —
tell us more!
GK: I spend my days (and many of my nights) train-
ing/working as an emergency medicine resident doctor
in the ER at Ascension St. John Hospital. It’s a wild job
and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. We provide
emergent health care for critically ill patients coming to
our doors for any reason imaginable. In a given shift, I
may have a patient who has been shot, a patient in active
labor, a baby with a cold, a drug overdose, heart attack or
stroke … all going on at the same time. The job is cogni-
tively engaging, emotionally taxing and always interesting.
Q: I see that you’re a climber. How did that passion
come about?
GK: Rock climbing has been my passion for the last
10 years. I grew up in southern West Virginia, which has
world-class climbing. While I always knew I was stoked
to climb, I didn’t really get into it until I started college
at Boston University and started working in the gym and
soon after teaching rock climbing classes. I was able to
take my passion outdoors and climb all over New England
before going on a five-month road trip to climb all over
the American West before I went back to West Virginia
for medical school. Whenever I have free time, I spend it
living in a tent somewhere or exploring new adventures
and new rock.
Q: What’s your favorite book?
GK: His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass,
The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) by Philip
Pullman. It’s a book for children, but I read it when I
was 22. The books beautifully weave adventure with a
complex and beautifully laid out universe all governed by
theories of physics (instead of magic). It’s super nerdy.
Q: Tell us about the best adventure you’ve ever been
on.
GK: Oh, boy, I don’t know; they’ve all been great! It’s a
three-way tie between the time I worked in a hospital in
Paraguay for a month, the time I spent a week living in
a secret cave in West Virginia and the summer I spent
researching bats in Texas. All three experiences were chal-
lenging, uncomfortable and beautiful. It’s difficult to pick
which life experiences have most shaped a person, but
these three stand out to me as shaping who I’m becom-
ing.
Q: Where would you most like to travel to that you
haven’t visited?
GK: Alaska! I’m planning on moving there even though
I’ve never been.
Q: How do you like to give back to the community/
others?
GK: Clinical medicine. Part of my decision to go into
medicine was because I knew I would have a skill I could
take anywhere in the world and be a valued and helpful
resource to anybody there. As I develop my career, I’d like
to do community level clinical volunteering as well as one
day do international disaster relief/refugee medicine.
Q: What’s your favorite Jewish holiday and why?
GK: Passover. I’m all about wine, gefilte fish and story-
telling.
Q: Who do you think is the coolest Jew?
GK: Hard to say. My first thought is Albert Einstein, but
I dunno, never met the guy. Growing up, I always thought
my three older brothers were the coolest dudes in the
world.
Q: If you could ask your cat three questions, what
would they be?
GK: In the five years I’ve been living with my cat (his
name is Billy Shears) I like to think we’re so close that
there’s not a whole lot I don’t already know despite our
lack of verbal communication. If I could ask three ques-
tions though: 1) How exactly do you view our arrange-
ment/relationship to each other? 2) What are you think-
ing about when you just sit there looking at the floor for
hours? 3) Why do you always gotta meow at me when I’m
near the fridge? You know I’ll always feed you when the
time is right!
Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
GK: Three-way tie between researching bats, training
a stubborn hound and getting through medical school.
These are the three things in my life that I considered
quitting the most often.
Q: How about a fun fact?
GK: There are more synapses in your brain than there
are stars in the universe.
Q: What are your three favorite movies?
GK: 1) Coming to America 2) Star Wars (all of them) 3)
Wayne’s World.
Q: When you’ve had a bad day, what do you do to
make yourself feel better?
GK: I really like to plug the drain, sit in the tub and run
the shower. It’s like combination bath/shower and it’s my
happy place. Is that weird? •
Want to meet Gary? Email Rabbi Dan Horwitz at
dan@meetyouatthewell.org for an introduction.