Posted by Jeff (24.30.53.181) on November 17, 2001 at 02:27:57:
In Reply to: a story posted by campfire hero on November 15, 2001 at 13:06:31:
: i work in a medical center lab & every once in a while, i stumble across a treasure of a person - i don't even have to speak to them, i can just learn something from the way they are, the way they present themselves...
: so one day, as i was walking down a hallway, the young MDs running around in their white jackets with their beepers & phones constantly ringing, i saw him. & my first thought was to turn away... he was an aging farmer type, about 60 or so, i'd guess. his faded denim overalls & flannel shirt hung loosely on his still trim, tanned body. the thing that made me turn away was his face, or lack thereof... my first thought was, "is it Halloween already? silly kids." & then my second thought was, "my God, it must be real. how sad... how many people instinctively turn away from you, like i just did, every time they see you? there must have been times in your life when this didn't happen to you, when strangers smiled at you or nodded their heads in passing..." so, i looked back at him, & i smiled, taking the opportunity to imprint his face on my mind. it was gone - one eye remained, his nose was a flat piece of skin, his mouth skewed to the same side of his face as his sole eye, & a concave place on the left half of his face, where he used to have a cheekbone.
: the reason why i love that man, though i haven't seen him since to ask his name, is because of the reality he brought back into my life. a huge part of his identity had been stripped from him by experience (probably basal cell carcinoma from working out in the sun all day as a farmer), & how many of us find ourselves encountering this same process of erosion, only in more subtle ways? & now-a-days, the most horrific, changing force in our society seems to be the glossing over of a dehumanizing culture. i feel this as not only a person of 1/2 Middle Eastern heritage, but also as a woman. something must be done, this has to stop... i'm sick of the slurs on every side & the way people have been manipulated & desensitized so gradually into this nation of Barbie & Ken wannabe automatons. where have all the faces, the unique identities gone?... & is this desire for sameness that supposedly ensures our societal safety also ensuring a lack of adaptability in the future? will we then all die out together?
That was an interesting story... that's all I can say.
The medical field is on my list of "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" professions, because I could not live with myself if I made a mistake and a patient suffered as a result.
Jeff