Gravitas

[poliphilo]

It's weird to discover that my doctor is more afraid of me than I am of him.

"In the days beyond compare and before the Judgements"* doctors and dentists were authority figures. The first doctor I had when I moved to this place was an old navy man.  He was around the age I am now, wore a blazer and handed down the law from on high. He made such an impression on those around him that they honoured him in retirement by naming the practice after him. It still bears his name, even though the present generation of doctors never had anything to do with him.

My present doctor had to ring me yesterday to give me the results of my tests. Obsequious is the wrong word, but he was very eager to please- and nervous that he might fail to do so. He was delivering what he supposed I might interpret as bad news and was quick to mollify and console. "It's nothing to be paranoid about," he suggested.

Indeed it isn't. I've got high cholestrol and he's giving me pills to bring it down.
 
I worry about many things- mostly involving interaction with other human beings (I don't trust the tricky, little buggers)- but not about a thing like that.

Of course he isn't to know. And I'm a well-spoken, senior gentleman. From a distance- especially when I'm wearing one of his coats- I might be mistaken for my father. So maybe this isn't about doctors losing their gravitas, but about me acquiring some. Now there's a thought.

Because like everybody else- including those mountainous doctors and dentists of yore-  I'm just bluffing my way through this life, hoping not to be found out.



*R. Kipling, Dayspring Mishandled

Comments

[michaeljohngrist.com (from livejournal.com)]

Ok- but in your examples you're talking about a more elusive thing than I was- popularity and fame. These people are riding the zeitgeist, not sure if they're riding it cos they really own it, or they're just teetering on the edge having been swept up in a random tsunami.

What about real skills- like a doctor, or a pianist, or a sniper? Sure they may fear failure, but do they feel like little children inside? Hmm. Short of just screwing things up and forgetting their training (in which case they can't have trained too effectively), they know they can do the same thing consistently and under stress. They have practised for many hours and know they are good.

About POTUS, I dunno. It seems redundant to say no-one is qualified, because we are all we have, so someone must be qualified. And if that person knows his/her brain is good- from having tested it against the best in the world, and his/her experience is good, also having tested that, and is a self-made man/woman who built the wave they're riding on, what's to fear?

This is one reason I like Obama- he really seems to own everything he does. He gets it. McCain was just floundering on his surf board, trying to pull off 360's when he barely even knew where the wave was or his feet were. Obama is on a wave he built, so he doesn't need to do tricks. If the people go off him, will he be shattered? I think not, cos his wave is not built on their love- it's built on other things that are more solid than that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've never been a highly trained specialist, so I don't really know, but I think self-doubt keeps us human. No-one likes a big-head. I think a professional who has no doubts at all about his competence is riding for a fall.

Everyone fails sometimes- and no-one stays on top of their game forever. Sooner or later you have to hand over your place at the head of the stairs to some younger, hungrier contender.

Power corrupts- and it will corrupt Obama the way it has corrupted every other person who's held the job. It's because of this that the Constitution limits presidents to two terms in office. Thus far I'm impressed by his performance- and I hope he goes on the way he's started.