Dream #2

The following is the second and final part of my influential dream series. Please enjoy.

I am a 20 year old patiently waiting in the waiting area of my pediatrician's office. (Isn't it ironic that we are patients to doctors. And, we have to be patient to see a doctor.) I am by myself except for the little children with their parents waiting to see Dr. Louis. Children are playing everywhere around me, while I sit in my chair and simply enjoy the company of free-spirited children.

The parents of these children are constantly looking at their watches, seeming to be in a hurry. Or, being impatient instead of a patient. The children, not having discovered the concept of time, play without any worries except those in the present moment. One boy is playing with blocks, all the time sharing with a girl in a pink Osh Kosh overall short outfit. Another boy is sitting "Native American" style, just staring and counting the holes in the ceiling. He is perfectly content. The parents of these children look older than I am, and I feel I have nothing to say to them worth my or their while. I feel more comfortable being surrounded by the children than their parents who are fidgeting in their chairs.

Not learning from their children, the parents feel the itchiness of the doctor's office chairs, and just hope the itching will stop. Playing on the floor, the children have already solved the problem of those itchy chairs. Why aren't all the adult parents on the floor playing then, if the chairs are really that itchy?
Maybe, they're too scared of what others may think. Maybe, that is why they are always in such a hurry. Trying to get somewhere in a hurry, just to make someone else happy, and forgetting to enjoy the moments along the way.

My name is finally called, and I make my way back to one of those little rooms where the doctor examines, diagnose, and prescribes you.

To tell you the truth, I am seeing my pediatrician because he had been my doctor since I was 10 years old. He knew me well, and he was my healer. He would always kid about his belly being too big, but conclude that life was too short not to enjoy it. He would, with his aged, squinting blue eyes, discuss with me, even as a teenager, the greediness of the pharmaceutical companies. With his thinning gray hair layered across his bald spot, his life of 64 years flew through his pen to the illegible prescription pad. He was just like the children that were playing in his office. It was the positive outlook on life that drew so many people to him. And, I was one. Dr. Louis had a way of making me feel better just being in his presence. He would always use humour and always genuinely cared for his patients. Dr. Louis somehow had always solved any problem I had. I had another one for him.

Dr. Louis walks in and says with a big smile on his face,
"Well, if it isn't ol' Leadville, CO."
Now, I have to tell you that ever since I was 10 years old Dr. Louis had been telling me that I needed to move to Leadville, CO and all my allergy related illnesses would be history. He also recommmended moving above the timberline, which I have contemplated every spring. Who knows...Maybe one day...
"What can we do you for today?" he says.
Not being sick at all, but torn by some of life's questions, I brought one to a man I repected as a fellow intellectual.
"Well, I was thinking about becoming a doctor." I said.
"Just tell me why."
"I...you see...I need a challenge. And, I think med school would be a big challenge."
All the while I said I needed the challenge, which is true, I also was hiding the fact that I wanted a profession that was noble and paid descent in society.
I thought I could become rich by being a doctor.
Dr. Louis responded to me with the most sincere and meaningful words that I still hear in my head today,
"Whatever you choose to do, you will be rich."
And, those words have made all the difference in my life.