Question for Bernie:
Hi Bernie,
Very recently while out dancing, a person who was clearly drunk collapsed behind me, falling onto the backs of my legs. This caused me to fall forward onto my right knee. The diagnosis on examination by physicians was a “knee sprain and displaced avulsion involving the medial patella.” I see an orthopedist in the coming week about the displaced avulsion. I’d rather see a psychiatrist about what I would call “displaced revulsion.”
I am getting a little better each day but still need the walker. A mentally-disabled friend (who does more even with his health challenge than anyone else I know, including me) helped me get to Urgent Care Saturday morning, when I still could not put any weight on my right leg for even a moment. I met this great friend when I dated his sister about 20 years ago. She left our relationship back then, but he stayed on and became a good friend. But she was there to help me along with her brother by driving us to Urgent Care, getting coffee for me while I sat in a wheelchair waiting to be examined, and shuttling intake forms, my ID information, etc., back and forth to the intake people.
I was dictating what to do and in what order. I recognized myself quickly from what you have written about going to your waiting room, seeing a family, and knowing that the healthy-looking person is your patient.
Thanks for all your work. Best wishes to you and your family.
Bernie’s Answer:
I recall a lawyer saying to me in the midst of a tragedy that “…being a lawyer is a serious illness in itself, because while learning how to think like a lawyer, I almost forgot how to feel.”
Life is about interruptions and disruptions. What we learn about ourselves as we go about handling these upheavals is critical to our growth as thinkers AND feelers in the School of Life. As we encounter these “tests” throughout our lives, one of the most important lessons they teach us is how to recognize our authentic selves.
We make our lives much more meaningful when our choices in handling any given situation come from knowing our true selves—not who others think we are and what they think we should do.
Peace,
Bernie