LoveWeek continues! Hooray for The Wiggles!

(A note to people without children in their lives: The Wiggles are a musical act who entertain children, not a strange erotic dance for adults)

We went to the Wiggles concert last night, and I am once again overwhelmed with the sheer effort and dedication shown by these gentlemen. when they set out to entertain kids, they put their backs into it. Literally.

This year’s theme was “The Wiggly Circus”, with acrobatics, a ringmaster, new circus-themed songs, all alongside the regular antics of a Wiggles show. Keep in mind that 3 of the 4 Wiggles are over 40.The oldest of the bunch  (Jeff, 57) was up in the air and doing hand stands, and to misquote an old episode of the Simpsons, “let’s see your grandfather do that!”.

From the start of the show until the end they put everything they have into giving a great show for the kids. It’s not for the money, since they’re sitting on giant piles of cash already. It’s not for the fame. They could film one movie a year and have the same rabid fan base, without touring the world every 2 years and playing 2 shows a day in every major nad not so major city.  When you watch them perform, you can see that they believe that what they’re doing is important, and should be done well. Entertaining and teaching the kids is serious work, but they remember that it’s fun work too.

I noticed that they made sure to pick up every rose and picture brought by the audience for Dorothy the Dinosaur, and they read every sign that was held up for them. No matter how much time they had to spend wading through the audience, they reached everyone. Their entire show was designed to focus on the kids out in front of the stage and make them all feel special.

There were several instances where there was a little slip-up or mistake on stage, and each time the Wiggles would acknowledge it and laugh it off. Think about how important a lesson this is for kids. If you’ve ever tried to calm down a hysterical child who is wretchedly disappointed that they made a mistake, you know that learning to cope with your own mistakes is a big deal. I’ve bellyached about my own fear of failure before, so use that as an example of how far into adulthood this can reach.

I am an unabashed fan of the Wiggles. They present an image of everything I want to be as a dad and as a male role model: patient, confident, caring, and committed.

 

Hug A Doctor!

That’s an Order! Wait-make sure they want to be hugged first.Okay, that’s better.

Yesterday I worked as a standardized patient for the doctor certification exam, pretending to have a malady and having a conga line of medical students try to diagnose me. The enormity of the grueling ordeal of becoming a doctor really hit home for me while I was there.

Imagine taking the hardest test of your life, the test that determines whether or not you can work in the job that you’ve spent 7 years in school for (3 undergrad, 4 med school). For the last two years of school, you’ve been a resident, working at the hospital. Your shifts are routinely 12+ hours, and you sleep a few minutes here and there during your shift. On a busy night, you don’t sleep at all. And it could happen that you work one of those shifts right before having to take this wickedly difficult test.

And passing the test doesn’t signal the end of the hard work and long hours. Patients don’t stop being sick after 5PM or on weekends. Every doctor tries to set some kind of work/life balance, but it’s against your very nature to neglect those who need you for the sake of your own life.

Also keep in mind how bafflingly complex the human body really is. You shouldn’t be surprised that you get sick: you should be astounded that you’re ever healthy at all. And we look to these doctors to give us quick and simple fixes to this complicated machine, without ever making a mistake or misjudgment. Talk about pressure.

A special shout out has to go to the one resident who was taking the certification exam and was at least 5 months pregnant. Learning medicine evidently wasn’t enough of a challenge for this brave woman, so she threw in (and possibly up) the most difficult human endeavor, procreation. And, she was a kick ass doctor. I would have that soon-to-be momma doc work on me any day.

 

Hooray for lasers!

(disclaimer: there are no lasers in this post. The laser is a symbol of the general awesomeness of modern science. Sorry for getting your laserhopes up).

Nostalgia can creep up on anyone at anytime and inflict upon them a yearning for an idealized version of the past that has little resemblance to the actual events. At the risk of alienating any renaissance faire/ SCA readers, I have to tell you that the past stinks. Instead of dreaming of days of yore, you should revel  in the ridiculously fantastic things that are a part of your everyday life.

We all agree that the internet is great (bewbs!), modern medicine is marvellous, and on and on. But let’s take a quick look at three small,  simple things that make modern living top-notch.

1)On-demand heating and cooling. When I stand on one of the floor registers and the furnace turns on and it hurtles warm air up to encase me like a body slipper, I melt with delight.

2) water flosser. I have always hated flossing my teeth. Sawing my poor gums with a waxy, minty piece of thread left me with a sore mouth and bloody saliva. Now that I have this aqua-jackhammer of cleanliness, I feel like I have healthy gums for the first time ever. I look forward to using it: “Its time to floss, WHEEE!)

3) Sanitation. Whenever you find yourself in a historical recreation of some sorts, like ye olde village, think “What part of this experience isn’t authentic?” The answer is the smell. I shudder to imagine living so close to other human beings if there were no sewer pipes magically taking the piles and piles of poop magically away and out of sight.