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Tips and Secrets |
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Letting Secrets Out of the Bag |
Photo: Norman Rockwell called this, "Doctor and Doll", but I call it, "Picture of My Hero". Once, when I was a young boy, perhaps no more than four or five years old, I got very sick. My parents called a doctor, and he came to our house to tend to me. He carried a black leather bag, and from it, he took out a tongue depressor, a blood pressure cuff, a light to look into my eyes and ears, and then up my nose. He even had a little hammer with a rubber head on it which he used to tap on my ankles, knees and elbows. They would jerk up as he tapped them- all by themselves, or so I thought. A moment or two later, he reached into his bag again, got a bottle of medicine and a needle, filled his syringe, and gave me an injection. Within a few days, I was well again. I was impressed, and I thought about that physician and his bag many times as I was growing up. I suppose it was he who inspired me to become a doctor, and he was my role model in a number of ways. I remember his gentleness. He didn't rush; he explained everything he was going to do. He seemed to sense what would worry me, and he reassured me even before I had a chance to become afraid. With the instincts of a child, I trusted him, and I knew he would get me better. But I was mostly impressed with his black bag. Like a small portable hospital, it contained everything he needed to bring relief and healing to a sick child. No, there was no CAT scan or EKG machine, as this was a time long before medicine became complicated. But in the imagination of a small boy, I knew there was a treasure of "stuff" in that bag, everything that anyone could ever need to get better. In my way, I would like to bring some of that kind of health care back to the present. To restore the goodness, gentleness and simplicity of that kind of treatment. I will use this photograph again. It takes you to a page where you can ask for help, if you need it. Your dolly, too... |
