Intermezzo 2

The previous blog told you a little about me – as an addition to the introduction to this series which I published in October of last year. It was not complete, for no such endeavor can be complete. We always hold back.ⁱ The current effort is intended as a supplement, but it, too, will be only part of the story. You'll learn more about me as time goes by. My original intentⁱⁱ was to avoid writing about myself – to delineate only my views of the world around me – but I now realize that whatever I enter here is a reflection of myself, even though I stated initially that I would avoid that topic. “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself.” Walt Whitman knew better than I.ⁱⁱⁱ

In any event, if you haven't already figured it out, I'm relatively conservative in some matters and liberal in others.^iv That doesn't clarify very much, nor does the fact that I'm often, if not usually, not really either of the two. Labels, you see, aren't very useful. Descriptions are deceptive. They don't solve anything. Indeed, solutions cause problems. So since my words have caused problems, I'll try to clear up a few issues here.

I don't know if I mentioned it already (and I have no interest in reading previous blogs to find out) but I'm a retired radiologist. I've spent my life in hospitals rather than private practice so I never got rich, but that's all right. I'm certainly comfortable and I've had the opportunity to do a lot of teaching and that has given me a good deal of satisfaction. My mother was a teacher^v and so is one of my (two) sons.^vi I guess it's genetic, although we teach (taught) at different levels.

Teaching worked fine for me. It gave me the opportunity to express my views (not varying, of course, from the provision of the scientific “Truth”^vii of the material I presented) to those who would question them and help me clarify my own ideas. It is true, or at least it was true for me, that students are the best teachers.  Or, at least, they stimulate the most thinking. 

Because I was in radiology, I was able to satisfy another of my loves – solitude. I don't much like people, so interaction with patients didn't attract me. But the challenges and puzzles of medicine did. Radiology, for those unfamiliar with the field, involves some interaction but it's primarily with other doctors and limited to the enigmas which interest me, and the teaching is primarily “one on one” and controlled by me, so I could avoid the small talk and stick to the science.

Although I loved radiology, since my retirement I have made no attempt to “keep up.” In fact, I try to ignore anything that has to do with medicine in general. I discovered a long time ago that whatever “medicine”^viii reaches the media is either false or premature – usually the result of a single study and not (yet) confirmed. Hence I don't place much stock in it. I must admit that I'm troubled that others do, but if they didn't we wouldn't be able to sell newspapers.^ix

My main activity nowadays is writing.^x As I have noted before, I'm really writing to myself. These essays into essay writing allow me to experiment with my own thoughts and prejudices, and the intentionally limited audience – me – makes it possible for me to enjoy my treasured solitude, the privacy I seek.^xi I'll continue to use this format as my (silent) sounding board. In the past, whenever an idea or question crossed my mind I wrote it on a piece of paper and stuffed it in my pocket along with the others, but the computer has allowed me to “download” my pockets. I know I'll never get to most of the topics, but at least I have less to carry around.

Next episode: “Parenting For Dummies” – It doesn't take a village.

i     More about privacy in a future essay.

ii    I'll have more to say about that, too, in an upcoming blog. I'll be writing about our Founding Fathers, however.

iii    Song of Myself. I may not be large, but I contain multitudes.

iv    “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance. I like to believe that I have more than a “little mind, ” but even if that isn't the case, I'm not troubled by consistency – foolish or otherwise.

v     And, for the record, my father was a CPA.

vi    Just to satisfy your curiosity, I also have one daughter. And a total of eleven grandchildren.

vii    One of my teachers, one for whom I have great respect, once told me that lying is a valid teaching tool, as long as the lesson was true. Of course I would never lie – or at least I'd never get caught lying if I could avoid it.

viii   I presume the same is true in other fields but I cannot judge them with any expertise.

ix     In all likelihood they'll disappear soon anyhow due to the internet.

x     I'm full of righteous indignation about the the perfidy, stupidity, and gullibility of others. But I doubt that I'd get very far – if I survived – confronting them, so I write to myself.

xi    Different societies treat privacy differently, and there is a wide spectrum of need for solitude within each. I probably would have made a good monk, but that kind of life isn't for everyone.