“We did not come here to fear the future, but to shape it.” –B. Obama(Part 1)

How much does it suck to wake your ass up at 630am, trudge out of the house and race to work in hopes of not having patients waiting? Not as much as getting there and realizing you start 12pm.

            I found my way to a coffee shop. The name of the place was “Coffee Shop.” The diner was so classic diner you would think it was a theme restaurant like Ruby’s or Johnny Rocket’s.

            Putrid pink countertops lined an all white diner decorated with “juke-box rockin” wallpaper. At the end of the counter sat a TV blaring Fox News. The last public place I saw Fox News blaring at was the Acura dealership; it says a lot about a place. Eventually they flipped to CSpan (thank Gods).

            I walked in with full intent of continuing to read “Interpreter of Maladies,” fully aware I would leave in a state of depression, despair and wonderment. But my eyes were so distracted by this alternate reality I only knew in Dublin, CA circa 1982 or from watching folks crazy angry at health care related town hall meetings. Even if I disciplined my eyes back to the page, my ears perked up to the conversation: “Oh it’s just a bunch of Democrats (talking about health care),” a man said waddling into the diner.

            It’s the day after Obama’s address about health care to Congress. Whether he’s right or wrong I praise him for spurring a great debate- from congressmen (and women) to the man in front of me at the coffee shop.

            The man found a pair of willing ears and relentlessly made his opinion known to all of us at the coffee shop, whether we liked it or not: “He’s pushing the insurance companies so tight, he’s not leaving them any room (for profit).”

            The willing ears agreed and chimed in, “Most of us have nothing wrong with our insurance anyway.”

            This came as amazement to a doctor’s ears. As the men I saw were rather tubby and aged. ‘For sure they have a pre-existing condition,’ I thought to myself.

            “What you up to today,” asked the coffee shop owner of one of the men.

            “I’m going to buy a gun set,” he said.

            I had to take a minute to double check that I was in California and then realized that I am not isolated from the images I see on TV….