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The Physician And The Golden Retriever

(2013-03-07 17:52:48) 下一個

The Physician And The Golden Retriever


Early afternoon yesterday, I was having a stressful moment with a money manager from South Africa on the phone, and the sticky point between us was getting stickier and more entangled as each minute went by. Secretively in mind, I started preparing my mental state to be ready for accepting the impasses that seemed imminent. Then, all of the sudden, my email notifier popped up on my screen, normally I'd wait for a task to be finished before initiating any new ones. But since the guy and I appeared heading to a dead end,I figured it made no difference to change the scene in the middle of conversation by reading an email.

It's an email from 陽光mm. For years, she and I've tried to share many things from a joke to an experience in our lives as a way to encourage each other to make a difference. This time it was a picture taken in her iPhone without any ps. There again was she and her patient's dog, a golden retriever named Clifford. As I stared at the photo for a few second, without warning, my already hardened heart began softening. 

"Do you own a dog?" suddenly, I asked the guy at other side of line.

 Paused and hesitatingly he answered"Yes, I do", obviously he must be "spooked" by my complete unrelated question. 

"What kind of dog is ? I kept"grilling" him.

"She is a 4 years old German shepherd." He answered my question without his normal seriousness in his tone and then he asked me "Do you have a dog?"
 

For a good five minutes of time we swapped our funny and heartrending dog stories with laughter.

Magically, when we returned to our business subject later, the wall previously existed between us was somehow demolished, and we actually crossed the breaking point and moved forward to have an agreement in good spirit. 

Maybe It's because the timing of the email or her picture or Clifford or something that happened in my childhood, I didn't know for sure. But it didn't matter any more In the end, it was a good day.

Life is so unpredictable, isn't it? A simple thing like a picture, a smile and a soft voiced hi may tip the dial for a total different direction and outcome. 

陽光mm and I have been friend for quite a long time. Let me put this in other way, my first comments were left at her blog in this virtue city. I witnessed her as a scared and soft-hearted intern who cried"uncontrollablly'' when a patient of hers died unexpectedly to a confident and experienced specialist who treats her patients with care and compassion today. 

Form the photo, one can hardly tell that just short time ago, 陽光mm perhaps sat in her office and listened to Clifford master's descriptions about her current diabetic conditions, dissecting the difference between the normalcy and an onset of something that is needed to keep eyes on; asking her to taking medication regularly and reminding her to watch diet and keep physically active... In other words, as professional as a physician she can be. Yet, here she was, awhile later,  petting Clifford happily as if she were a child.  

My grandma once told me that one of the best ways to truly reveal a person's personality is to see how he or she would treat, behave and react to other people's kids and pets. I think my grandma could have a point.

 Note:   Put a video clip about golden retriever;please don't interpret it as my endorsement.  

 

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縱然平行 回複 悄悄話 回複盈袖2006的評論:
"Mimai is too busy to have a pet at the moment." You really think that way? But we never know, I think she is quite ambitious lady, and an expert on multitasking. I guess she may handle it if she really wants to put her foot down.I am telling you guys, you don't know what you could have missed when you grew up without a pet in your life.

BTW, you are not only one who have the dilemma - nice dog but allergic to fur. However, there is problem and there may be a solution. Some dog enthusiasts have solved the problem by mixing Golden Retriever with French poodle which has hair not fur, the new type of breed is called Goldendoodle. This mix has both good traits of too dog genetic prints: That's a nice family dog that won't trigger its owner's allergy.

AJ, please don't listen to my pet craziness which may not only waste you time but also thin your wallets. :)
縱然平行 回複 悄悄話 回複蘇鄉門地的評論:

No, not again. Could you stop stirring the pot ?:) No baby picture from me. For starter, I was a ugly boy when I was little and I am uglier now. I am afraid that showing my pictures in any stage of my life may cause many of you ladies heart attack. That is definitely not funny since you all kids to raise, and bills to pay at this time.

So to answer you question: there will be no epiphany moment for me. In fact, what I really want now are peace and prosperity, do I ask too much? :)
蘇鄉門地 回複 悄悄話 A nice story and thanks for sharing with us!

So, what is your latest epiphany dear newyorker?~~

Showing a baby/childhood photo can not tarnish your image, in my view, as a matter fact, it'll bring back warm feelings and great memories. As I recall from a couple of years ago, Yangguang mm and Xuanmi mm both had posted one of their b&w girly pictures (~4or5 yr.). with or without a smiling face, I shall never forget them, sooo qute!!! :))
盈袖2006 回複 悄悄話 回複縱然平行的評論:
mimai is too busy to have a pet at the moment~
You are right. however i still hope they can go out for a run now and then~~ Golden retriver is one of my favorite breed. I am such a sucker of "friendly" either with dogs or people. And they look nice too. The sad thing is I found I was allergic to dog fur, so probably can only get one whose hair doesn't shed, poodle might be a good choice.
縱然平行 回複 悄悄話 Thank AJ for the praise. As you already knew, negotiation is a difficulty thing to do; many time depends on many factors, and any of the factors can go wrong. But that day, somehow I managed to push a right button, it turned out to be my lucky day. :)

Yes, you are right about petting service dog. On one hand, it seems unfair, however, on the other side of coin, the masters of the service dogs do need to maintain absolute control on those loyal assistants whom they rely on everyday. So it's understandable that any interference of the strangers to the dogs may, in turn, jeopardize their life lines. That being said, Clifford is somehow a different case, he accompanies his master to the clinic regularly to visit Yangguang mm. In addition, Yangguang might just give him a pro bono checkup for his lymph nodes each time he comes by. :))
縱然平行 回複 悄悄話 回複小米和小麥的評論:

你講得有道理,知識麵的寬和深及應用的確蠻重要, 多鼓勵他學習同時也容忍他的興趣。 他還年輕,有你這樣的媽媽,成功隻是時間長短罷了。

你覺得陽光美眉很陽光嗎? 可是她以前很小資d,我記得她在做住院醫生的時候,動不動就“梨花帶雨”,現在估計即使被她女兒呱唧咬一口,眉頭都不帶皺一下的。 你們女人會不會都會有這種“女大18變”現象。像你們這樣不斷的銳變和進化, 我們男人很快就要落伍了。:)

如果喜歡,就養一隻狗狗。 不過,時間方麵你要計算一下。
小米和小麥 回複 悄悄話 我以前跟我兒子說過,要拓寬自己的知識麵和興趣點,這樣將來才更容易和各種不同的人溝通來往。光是懂得業務知識肯定是不夠的。:)您這個例子也就說明了這一點。:)

陽光MM很自然,很真實,很陽光。

我以前怕狗,但是現在對於狗的親近感越來越強。
盈袖2006 回複 悄悄話 sofa.
great insight in going around a deadlock... yangguang mm is indeed very yangguang.
One thing I feel sorry for the service dog is that they are not allowed to be patted nor pampered, which is so unfair
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