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So many lawyers, so little time...

"The prospect of hanging focuses the mind wonderfully"--Samuel Johnson

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Location: Louisville, KY, United States

Gastroenterologist, cyclist, cellist, Christian, husband, father, grandfather.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

The little mouse in the corner

Mealtime for the family of a gastroenterologist is not for the weak-of-stomach. It's not my fault that seeing flaming Cherries jubilee brought out to our table prompts an uncontrollable reflex in me to discuss the really cool case of hemorrhoidal bleeding I'd seen lately. It just happens.

For that reason the rest of my family has no hesitancy in bringing up subjects that others might find a bit unappetizing.

One evening at a nice restaurant Daughter the Younger told us of a time she had been to a zoo and got to watch feeding time for the snakes. "There was this one fat old lazy snake they were feeding. The workers dropped a little white mouse in the snake's cage. The snake woke up and took one bite of the mouse's tail, lost interest, and fell asleep. There was the poor little mouse with half his tail gone, shivering in the corner as the snake slept. I kept thinking, 'Why are we just standing here? Isn't anyone going to rescue the poor little thing?'".

I agreed. We mammals had better stick together. Under threat of punishment we quickly changed the subject.

By the end of the meal, though, I thought I might break down and cry. Countless thousands of innocent people had died in the tsunami just the week before. Mice are eaten by other animals everyday. The hamburger I just ate required the killing of some cow who never meant me any harm. Yet this story touched something deep within my soul, a feeling that life-as-it-is-ordained is unjust and cruel and mean.

Somewhere in Florida a 'little white mouse' of a person is slowly dying as the snakes sleep and as we stand about wondering, "Why are we just standing here? Isn't anyone going to rescue the poor little thing?" People die all the time, cancer patients long for the day they will no longer hurt so bad, people with Lou Gehrig's disease look upon their future with only fear and dread, and life for the rest of us goes on. Yet this story touches something deep within my soul, a feeling that life-as-it-is-ordained is unjust and cruel and mean.

7 Comments:

Blogger Yanni Znaio said...

The snakes aren't asleep.

Some of them are issuing rulings from their respective benches; others are holding press conferences and describing the process of starving to death as "looking peaceful".

Yanni Znaio
hotelsierra.blogspot.com

8:06 PM  
Blogger Andrew Bailey, M.D. said...

The lawyer describing Terri's face as she starves to death as "angelic"? Only a person who doesn't believe in the afterlife could believe that he's not going to be punished in Hell over that one.

9:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The case going on in your parts of the world is beyond my comprehension. Do we really need to come up with some "crap" or the other daily just to be entertained in this world?!? As if life alone is not enough.

11:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Countless thousands of innocent people had died in the tsunami...

How about the fugitives from justice? Every ill wind blows some good!!!

10:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Daddy...
I agree with you. I found this article online today... what do you think?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7328639/

7:04 PM  
Blogger Andrew Bailey, M.D. said...

Hi DTY. Check this site out.

I'm glad you and Mom finally agreed on the wedding announcements.

9:30 PM  
Blogger Andrew Bailey, M.D. said...

Thanks, DTY. This site provides a rational review of the subject, free of the ad hominem found in the MSNBC post.

10:21 PM  

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