the culture

medicine isn't just a career. it's a lifestyle choice.

and i get that. i really do. my life would have no meaning if i weren't able to improve people's lives with my hands. i'm ready to commit to doing that for the rest of my days.

but what really ticks me off.

are the people who think it necessary to pound that into the skulls around them. that condescending, or even worse, blindly heroic tone they take when they talk about their work. sure, medicine is extremely important. by extension i suppose that makes you an extremely important person. but you don't have to treat it like a cult. with a country-club-esque exclusivity.

these days more and more people are taking control of their health. being a doc doesn't make you a god.

on the flip side, i also feel that it doesn't give you any right to proselytize on the type of person you feel SHOULD be in medicine. a particular nytimes article comes to mind, written by a female anesthesiologist who chastises women physicians for dropping out of full-time work to take care of family. she emphasizes the "life-style choice" perspective of medicine.

...really?

it makes you less committed to your profession if you choose to expand and commit to your family? such bullshit. don't look down on the moms because they chose part-time. don't look down on them because their priorities are different than yours. it doesn't make you a better doctor. it doesn't make you a saint. people are just different. that's it. end of story. to qualify the value of their work like that, in terms of time spent, is one-dimensional. we live in a wonderful period, a wonderful country, where many of us have that CHOICE. why not celebrate that?

another example of type A's thinking on a narrow track. hey grandma, it's 2011. live outside the box. rage against the machine. viva la revolucion.