Posted by Mark H. on October 10, 2000, at 22:45:42
In reply to Medical fantasies and the cute Dr.H, posted by Pritzker on October 10, 2000, at 18:11:36
Dear Lei,
Driving home this evening, I realized that the same qualities that could make for a difficult career in the conventional helping professions might serve you very well in other areas. Your intensely thorough interest in and observations of people, their mannerisms and behaviors, what their gestures and personal styles say about them, their interactions with one another, your speculations about their needs and intentions, could make you a fabulous writer of short stories and novels, or, if your medical interests persist, perhaps a keenly valuable forensicist or forensic anthropologist.
I'm sure my thinking of the latter reflects having just read "Anil's Ghost" this weekend, the latest novel by Ondaatje about a pathologist who returns to her birthplace in Sri Lanka to do human rights research for an international organization. It takes an almost obsessive interest in detail to unravel the mysteries of a crime scene, and relatively few people have the inherent skills.
Also, if you haven't read it already, I'd like to recommend an article in the July 10 issue of the New Yorker titled, "The Good Doctor," about an American physician who has spent many years amongst the poor in Haiti. I think you would really enjoy it. I have never read a more inspiring piece about medicine.
I appreciate your courage in sharing such a revealing level of your self, and especially your openness to comments that could be taken as critical.
Best wishes,
Mark H.
poster:Mark H.
thread:936
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20000813/msgs/951.html