Here's a shout-out to my dentist, Dr Pettis. I said I'd mention him in this unread blog and so I have. Learned a few things at the dentist the other day. First, the dentist knew I was under some stress. Apparently, the good and gentle aand wonderful pain killers don't work as well if the patient is stressed. The nerve synapses are firing faster and faster, too fast for pain killers to block the impulses. Dr. Pettis said the three months after 9/11, he had to double the pain medication and give out valium like candy. (Doctor-advised candy, of course.)

Also, I had a bit of a 'duh' moment about people's relationship to work sitting in the chair focusing very hard on a spot on the wall. A common denominator among the excellent over the just technically good is a large impulse toward intellectual curiousity. My dentist didn't come to work so much to work to inflict some pain and collect a check, he came to work to work to learn about people. He chatted with one patient about how to fix his basement, another about the news, another about, well, dentistry.

Now, some people are practiced at the art of professional courtesy, that is appearing interested to get the information they need or to get you to move along (See the South Park 'Raisins' episode). But these people are pretty easy to spot, they're the same people who ask a question only to lead into their idea, their conversation. It seems sometimes that half the world is internally motivated (that is, every action has a somewhat selfish motive) and the other half eats up the few crumbs the internally motivated have to give. Well, that's if we're only looking in the bad in people.

My dentist said he could very easily move to a smaller town, work 10 hours a week and make 30,000 a year, but that he hates to turn people away and he almost always gives some kind of discount. His intellectual curiosity may stem from his enviroment as well. Everyone else in the office---those people who really run a doctor's office; the assistants, receptionist and other---were also pretty outgoing, curious, and, like the doctor, a bit nosy. Seemed like a wonderful enviroment. They've all been there for years and the office had the same feel as a successful marriage, each staff person was still learning about the other and relating the world to the other.

Have you ever worked in an enviroment where the co-workers were purely self-involved? It's a vacuum. I like the engaged students I work with in teaching. The engaged teachers as well, those who aren't only interested in the little pieces of paper, the bling-bling, the resume, the book. I have plenty of smart students who have little curiousity. It's the age we live in, we have a president who doesn't solicit other points of view or read the paper. The kid who's only question is, "Will this be on the test?" The smart, but curious-free tend to develop into the partisan, the righteous.

But my favorite student is the curious, yea, they often suck up class time, but learning to learn, it's an odd concept. These kids generally admit what the don't know and have the same kind of tangent thinking this unorganized post has.

Would you take a pay cut to do what you do? And why do you work? They're basic questions I'm not sure everyone asks themselves.

I've had crappy jobs where the people there were there to help their co-workers and made challenges out of what little they did. I've seen people in jobs many would sacrifice for piddle the opportunity with ego and little pieces of paper.

Maybe the good doctor gave me too much of the ole pain killers.
9:32:40 PM  #  Oh yea! []