What if? What if?

I don't know what I think I know

I had in mind to write snippets from my long career as a family doctor. I thought some of my memories and take-away understandings might be worth sharing. That may even still be true, BUT!!!!

I saw an article (can’t remember if it was on Our World in Data or somewhere else) that showed, no matter now many people we meet in a lifetime, how many people we’ve had significant conversation with, even up to 800,000…..it’s still a drop in the bucket of humanity. When you really look at the numbers, that’s an “of course”. Shocking, though, that 250,000 encounters of substance over 80 yrs and 40 yrs in medical practice is still a drop in the bucket. There sure are a lot of us!

Early in my career I was accepted into a prestigious specialty program and I quit after 2 weeks. The program seemed abusive to me. It was 2 weeks of very little sleep, no time off, and no teaching whatever in the specialty I was supposedly there to learn. In retrospect it was an example of the hierarchical dominator mentality that has been destroying our world and I’m glad I left.

What has that got to do with us not ever really seeing who other human beings are? To be in medical practice is to see the people who come for help when they think something’s wrong. We know that most people don’t do that. Do they imagine there is no help to be had? Or is there nothing wrong? I find that not knowing any more, and knowing that I don’t know, is a soothing thought.