My husband and I traveling for a memorial service this weekend provided opportunity for two jarring observations.
The first observation was during two episodes of poor customer service, when we heard the phrase, “The computer won’t let me do that,” and reflected on how we are being conditioned to tolerate lack of human agency. I can attest that the rule of the computer is happening in hospitals and other medical care facilities. On my first weekend call in a new hospital now many years ago, my first patient had suffered a cardiac arrest in the emergency room and been resuscitated. I arrived in the ICU to take her to the operating room to find her, unattended, with a blood pressure incompatible with life. I summoned help, chest compressions were performed, and, since I knew her underlying condition, I asked how to acquire blood products to transfuse as quickly as possible. There was a time in my career when I could have just verbally asked for this to happen, but I was presented with the necessity of my distracting myself from life-saving interventions to enter such orders precisely in the computer. I remember my amazement that we could allow life to ebb should we falter at keystrokes. “The computer won’t let me do that” may justify poor customer service but may also condition us to tolerate much graver consequences.
The second observation was during a meal with the husband and son of the departed saint (so described because she trusted in Jesus) we were celebrating. Given her husband is an engineer, her son is a prominent scientist, my husband and I are both physicians, and my husband is also a pastor, we discussed a wide range of subjects of interest to the four of us: the scientific method, the intelligent design of creation, Noah and the flood (given the recent release of the well-done movie, “The Ark and the Darkness”), covid-19, climate change, the media, and politics. No light discourse. As we were talking, I realized how we have been conditioned to discount that which we observe with our own eyes, and to discount the firsthand testimony of others.
It's all very clever conditioning, and worth reflecting on whose interests it serves if it is not our own.
We need wisdom. Four years in, I remain amazed where I see people failing to believe what their eyes do see. God's will be done. I just hope I have wisdom and discernment when it matters most. God bless you all.
I have so much respect for you! It is so refreshing that you have the courage to live and share your faith, especially in the climate in which we live. Thank you so much, and to God be the glory... always!!!