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Letters From North America |
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This morning, I was having coffee with a friend of our family that we had helped raise as a child. He has turned into a fine young man. I hope we in some way or another helped him to become this way. Anyway, we were talking about his father, who is in the hospital after a heart attack and a stroke. All of them are in our prayers and if you have a few moments, I’d appreciate you putting in a few words for him as well. Anyway, we got off on the subject of doctors and their ‘practice’. And as often happens, when you’re sitting around just shooting the bull, you develop this concept about something that kind of strikes you as odd. You’ve heard folks say they were out at some bar or party last night and had this great discussion about how to do something or another to (1) promote world peace or (2) cure cancer. The only problem is, they didn’t write it down and now they’ve forgotten what the plan was. I suppose that’s why so many great deals have been written out on cocktail napkins. Where did I read that the plans for the first atom bomb were written this way? Anyway, we got to talking about the fact that the highest paid jobs seem to go to the people in our country that have a so called “practice’. Now think about this, doctors, lawyers, and accountants all have one thing in common….they practice their profession. So, the people who have gone to school the longest get to practice on the rest of us. Doesn’t this strike you as kind of strange? Same thing for auto mechanics. You take your car in for repair and what does he tell you? “I’ll have to diagnosis your car and get back to you with the estimate.” In other words, I can’t tell you what is wrong; I’m going to have to diagnose the possibilities. Now, auto mechanics get big bucks and I’m here getting treated the same as I do at the doctors office? What’s wrong with this story? On the other end of the scale, the lowest paid workers don’t have the option of “practicing” their work, they have to get it right the first time or get fired. How so, you ask? Well, look at it this way, you drive into the local McWhopper or whatever for a burger. Suppose some new kid is in there and he decides to “practice” being creative on you. He’s a bright kid, and very creative. So, you get two buns stuck together with the mustard, lettuce, tomatoes and the meat patty on the outside. Maybe the mustard is in the form of a smiley face or something. You’d go ballistic. No chance for experimentation here. You wanted a hamburger and you want it right the first time. Same thing holds true for going into some restaurant and ordering a steak cooked, say medium rare. If it comes to you charred and black and over cooked, you don’t want it. If the cook comes out to say that he just got in a new grill and he was learning how to use it, you tell him not to “practice” on your steak. Do it on his own time and at his expense, not yours. Thank you very much. You didn’t come into his place and pay fifteen bucks to allow him to have the opportunity to develop his skill at cooking on your nickel. In the morning you walk out to get the paper, and there isn’t one in your front yard. You call the paper company and they tell you they’ll find out what happened. An hour or so later, they call to explain to you that the delivery guy threw your copy at the house next door because he “wanted to practice throwing at some big tree or whatever”. No way, Jose, you want your paper and you want it now. Well, as you can see the list can go on and on. Point being that you and I would feel better off, dealing with people who weren’t practicing at their professions. They had gone to school for a long time should know what to do. Now, before you stop reading this and say to yourself…”He’s really getting silly and losing it.” Let me just sum up this way. The main gist of our conversation this morning had to do with our frustration of dealing with graduated professionals (mainly doctors and lawyers) who somehow want us, as laymen to make the decisions as to what needs to be done in any given situation. Instead of giving us sound advice on how to react or handle some problem or situation; they take the stance that they want us to come to some suggestion on a course of action and then they will consider it. Somehow, I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. Perhaps we have gotten so cautious in this country that people who used to be unafraid to give sound advice, have retreated into their shells of comfort for fear that what they say or suggest will lead to some law suit or bad publicity. I’m sure this may have been the case in some instances. What a sad commentary on our times that those who should be of the most help to us in our journey through this process called life, end up being those who are still “practicing” at getting the job done that we thought they were prepared for in the first place. |
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