Trivial Pursuits

You're Too Kind

Dear Dr. TP,

It is our great pleasure to formally offer you this position.  We hadn't dreamed of offering this job to someone so young and with such little experience, relatively speaking, but you are simply right for the job, and otherwise perfect in every way.

The starting salary for this position is normally X, but because of your incredible qualifications, sterling resume, and overall level of complete and utter bad@ssery, we are going to start you off with a salary of 240(X).  And the perquisites, my god, the perquisites!

At present, myself and the rest of the Board of Directors are currently holding a candlelight vigil, chanting and praying that you accept the position.  We have hired shamans of several different religious traditions, a rabbi, a priest, several Buddhist monks, and Miss Cleo.  Should ritual sacrifice become necessary, we also have a cow, a pig, and a goat.

Let us know of your decision whenever it is convenient for you to do so. 

Sincerely,

CEO Guy/Gal

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In all seriousness, this is the exact kind of position TP will be interested in once his studies are completed.  While my strong sense is that I would, upon graduating, lack the necessary experience, if not the qualifications, to be a serious candidate for the position, an analogous position, perhaps at a smaller hospital corporation, is really what TP is after (at least, that's the current thinking, subject to drastic change, obviously).

Readings

How's school, you ask?

Early returns are great.  I think my professors are nothing short of amazing, both in terms of their pedagogical abilities, and how approachable and personable they are.  The classes are terrifically interesting.  I'm taking classes in religion, medicine and culture, and on ethics, as well as a practicum in clinical ethics.

As I am pursuing both an interdisciplinary doctorate and an interdisciplinary career, I thought some of y'all (anyone? anyone?) might be interested in seeing the kinds of readings I've been doing thus far in the program (all of several weeks into it).  Here's a sample:

Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

Plato: The Collected Dialogues (thus far, we've read the Apology, the Crito, and parts of the Republic).

Report of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities: Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation

Ethics Consultation: Is it Enough to Mean Well?

Cultural Engagement in Clinical Ethics: A Model for Ethics Consultation

Ethical Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings

Everything else continues to move well.  I am really enjoying working for my friends as a part-time attorney.  The arrangement seems to suit everyone.  They cannot take on a long-term fixed cost, as they are too small to add another attorney and be responsible for attorney development.  I have no long-term wish to work as an attorney, but am happy to help them out in the short-term with research, brain-storming, drafting, etc.

Plus, the office is small -- only five lawyers and two-three support staff -- and my bosses I count among my closer friends in the world, in addition to being mentors -- more in terms of the way they handle themselves in their profession and in their life-wisdom, than in career terms, seeing as how I don't wish to practice law in the formal sense -- and teachers for me.

Living inside Houston is simply so superior to living in Cypress, I don't even know where to begin.

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Speaking of living conditions, please don't think me utterly selfish if I don't talk much about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.  I am happy to see Houston opening its considerable resources to those in need, and I am more than horrified at what happened/is happening in New Orleans, but I simply don't have much to say about in this medium.

My thoughts and prayers extend to those who have suffered.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled self-absorbed blog post.

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Anyway, things feel relatively good for TP right now.  Not too scared of jinxing it, seeing as how my beloved Hurricanes lost tonight.  Balance, TP.  Balance.