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 me 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 (3) feed the hungry of the
world. 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? I seem to recall several very successful
businesses getting their start in this manner.
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,
burnt 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 of 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 out
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. Then they shake their
collective heads and nod in agreement.
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.
