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Post by doctork on Apr 22, 2009 22:21:38 GMT -5
Today's question is:
Are there people you envy enough to want to trade lives with them?
Who are they?
Once again, two questions in one, but if it's yes/no, it wouldn't be very interesting would it? (Third question, I'm on a roll.) What the heck, a fourth question. Please elaborate or why you would or would not change, and if you would change, why you chose that person/people.
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Post by doctork on Apr 22, 2009 22:33:46 GMT -5
Occasionally I remark to someone, or think to myself, "Man I wish I had their life!"
Then I think about my profession, and how in my family practice office, I learn a lot of confidential information about people, and how they feel about their lives. There are so many folks who appear to "have it made," but then beneath the surface appearance, I learn that they are very unhappy or have serious health problems.
On the other hand, sometimes a person/patient seems rather unlikeable or boring or stupid or having a very difficult time of things, and I think to myself, I'm glad I'm not them. Then I talk more with that person and find out they are much different, and I really like them, or they are actually very interesting and intelligent, or they lead a very happy and satisfying life despite what I perceived as hardships.
So I wouldn't change lives with someone else. I suspect that if they look as though their lives are enviable, there are apt to be some ugly skeletons in the closet, and I'd be sorry I made the change. Those things that appear enviable - money, beauty, fame, power - aren't much correlated with a satisfying life.
And if someone doesn't appear enviable, well the question of wanting to change to their happy secret inner life, wouldn't arise because I wouldn't know about it, right?
Overall, I guess I'm OK (echo Stuart from Saturday Night Live here). And you're OK too!
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Post by gailkate on Apr 22, 2009 23:28:49 GMT -5
Well phooey, K, you sound so well-adjusted and cheerful, you take the fun right out of envy. How can anyone dive into "if-only" if you insist on being so contented? I'd like never to have had to worry - about money, or illness, or broken hearts. You're right, of course, that such a state is pretty rare, but I'd like it just fine. I wouldn't trade my loved ones for anyone else's but I could do with replacements on some of the stinkers. I guess I'd like to keep all the good people in my life along with several residences (wasn't it McCain who couldn't remember exactly how many he owned?) and several talents. I'd have a great voice and be able to play any instrument I chose, and dance at least as well as Ginger Rogers (though I'd really rather be Fred Astaire  . ) I'd like to have my metabolism at 20 and my brain at 30. Ok, maybe I wouldn't trade my life. I just want all the best parts to last forever! |
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Post by doctork on Apr 23, 2009 9:36:13 GMT -5
Well gk, it's not that I'm so well adjusted, it's that I'm a doctor who gets a lot of the inside scoop on people's lives. So I do know that "All that glitters isn't gold" much more than the average person would know.
[Sidebar: It's really a privilege and an honor, and very educational, being a physician entrusted with the care of patients and their private matters; I learn a lot from them]
Sure I'd rather not have all my ailments, but I am OK, and I know it could be much worse. And I always wished I had a great voice and could be like a rock star standing on the stage in front of thousands of screaming fans like Janis Joplin. But hey I saw the movie "The Rose," (and read the newspaper) so I know the rest of the story.
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Post by doctork on Apr 23, 2009 9:45:30 GMT -5
OK, I just thought of someone I might have wanted to trade with - Margaret Mead, the prominent anthropologist. She was a cool person and got to do all that innovative groundbreaking work in her (our) field.
She was one of the first feminists, and she was married to Gregory bateson, who was a fascinating man, also an anthropologist, but also a very deep thinker.
I was fortunate enough to meet Ms. Mead in person while I was a medical student. I was on the "East campus" at the med school, when she gave some lectures to anthropology classes on the "West campus" (the rest of the university where med students never tread). Since I had taken a couple of anthro classes over there "in my spare time," I did the unthinkable. I skipped a few classes and rode my bike over to the other campus to hear some of her lectures!
I spent a whole month at Esalen while Gregory Bateson was in residence there, and one of my favorite things was to sit at his table in the Lodge at lunch or dinner and talk to him. A great man! I'd stay there for an hour or more just to chat.
BTW, "in my spare time" is a joke. Medical students do not have spare time, that is against the rules.
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Post by jspnrvr on Apr 23, 2009 11:02:34 GMT -5
Well gk, it's not that I'm so well adjusted, it's that I'm a doctor who gets a lot of the inside scoop on people's lives. So I do know that "All that glitters isn't gold" much more than the average person would know. [Sidebar: It's really a privilege and an honor, and very educational, being a physician entrusted with the care of patients and their private matters; I learn a lot from them] Sure I'd rather not have all my ailments, but I am OK, and I know it could be much worse. And I always wished I had a great voice and could be like a rock star standing on the stage in front of thousands of screaming fans like Janis Joplin. But hey I saw the movie "The Rose," (and read the newspaper) so I know the rest of the story. Pretty much +1 to all that. I've met some fascinating individuals, not necessarily famous, but fascinating. And a few prominent folks along the way. Once the bond is established, and I'm known as trustworthy and professional, especially in the individual's home, not even an office setting, (although I've done both) really, the sky is the limit. I never had the rock star thing, but the power of the crowd can be seductive. I always had more in mind the motivator/ leader/ campaigner role. You know, the courtroom, floor of the Senate, something like that. But one individual? Thomas Jefferson comes to mind; he was such a true Renaissance man. Diplomat, architect, musician, engineer, gardener, scientist, inventor. Imagine sitting out on his deck there at Monticello, maybe trying out some new sheet music by Mozart or Beethoven? Down on your hands and knees in the front hall going over the map from the Voyage of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis! But also fleeing in the night to stay ahead of the British; losing the love of your life at a young age. Yeah, here we're planted, now we do the best we can. |
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Post by Jane on Apr 23, 2009 15:48:49 GMT -5
I'd have to go with Michelle Obama! I always thought it would be cool to be Ophrah, too. Maybe I was meant to be black. My daughter (the loud, gregaious and outgoing dancer), born into a family of introverts, came into the world in an all-African-American hospital in the middle of Detroit and claims we brought home the wrong baby. She says, "I'm really a black girl named Kenisha."
But about envy: I'm sure I've shared this before, but F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "Life for everyone is a struggle, sometimes magnificient from a distance but always difficult and surprizingly simple and a little sad."
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Post by sailor on Apr 23, 2009 20:01:02 GMT -5
I'm the guy that most people want to trade lives with. Mike I am... a happy camper! |
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Dopey Member
. ) I'd like to have my metabolism at 20 and my brain at 30.
