The ten talents

I think I've been in the process of adding a new occupation to my list (you know: writer, rock star, actor, director, trapeze artist, performance artist, architect, software architect, etc.): epidemiologist. I just had a flash of insight about going to the schools and collecting data about diet and behaviors. What if one person tried to gather as much data for this state on those topics? What if I asked about school lunch participation, did a survey to find out what kids eat (all anonymous and voluntary), did follow-ups by phone or in other languages, if needed, to get as much of the data as possible, like the census.

Think of what a difference that could make, though: if one person could synthesize all that information (here again: we're back at this gut-brain question). I absolutely must do some more research and see who is asking these questions, because I have an instinct that we have more answers than we realize right here in front of us. I feel like a cosmic (that's the first word I got -- live with it) detective, some kind of dowser, really, who sees all the pieces and knows how they are starting to fit into the puzzle but hasn't seen the whole picture mapped out just yet.