This week's post of Overheard in The Office This Week is more a combination of attitudes that I saw, rather than heard. Sometimes, to get my mind going when I sit down to write, I look over the previous week's (electronic) appointment book to recall my conversations with different patients that came in. Of course, everyone knows what the topic of the day is. No surprise there!
This week, I've been trying to ask people how things have changed for them, or even what they have learned during this unique time in history. There are some funny stories, especially from those who are going through all of this with kids. But, there is some uncertainty and trepidation as well. When I looked back over the course of the week, I found that the overwhelming attitude was that of people just doing what they had to do and getting on with life.
That same thought was expressed again at our weekly staff meeting. When I asked the staff what they had learned personally this week, I was struck by one of the themes:
We all are going through a gambit of emotions, sometimes hour by hour, and that was OK. People are still moving on and doing what they have to do.
It reminded me of a C.S. Lewis quote. In 1948, as the atomic age was newly upon us, he was asked how we should live under such an ominous threat. His response:
""In one way, we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.""
What a very typical response from an English Man! I love the last paragraph: "... and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together... they may break our bodies, but they need not dominate our minds."
A more modern translation:
Do what you gotta do, baby!
That is what I overheard in the office this week and I am glad I did. It gives me strength to press on, myself
Speaking of doing what you have to do, I am thankful for someone who did what I couldn't do on my behalf: Jesus! I hope you all had a blessed Easter. I am sure it is one you will remember for a long time!
Yours in Health,
Care Chiropractic - Lafayette, Indiana
PS: We are open regular hours for people in pain and for regularly scheduled visits. If you are over 70, dealing with a chronic health condition (heart disease, diabetes, immune suppression, etc. ), hold off if you can, or call and we will make sure to see you at a time when there are fewer people in the office. If you are running a fever, having difficulty breathing, or have a cough, make sure to get to your medical doctor right away.
If you are in pain, but just don't feel like you want to come in to the office, we understand! Please don't hesitate to call our office and we will schedule a time for your doctor to call you back and see if there is anything you can be doing at home. No charge! We are here to help!