| Good morning. In ways that we are all aware of, this month has shown us unspeakable tragedies. In most of us, it has instilled deep concern for our fellow humans, hopelessness, anger, fear, confusion, anxiety, and you name it, countless other negative feelings. Please let us at Walk with a Doc serve as whatever source of positive energy we can provide. We are grateful every day to collaborate with physicians and other healthcare leaders around the world who care deeply for their communities. I’m not a mental health expert, but I unfailingly believe in the power and strength of us all coming together. While the following newsletter is similar to the others (it’s about time to disengage if you are ‘not in the mood’), please know we are thinking about you and we are extremely thankful to have you in our collective lives. I guess then I’ll get right to it. We have some WWAD guests who have been growing increasingly uncomfortable having zombies welcomed at their walk by the physician leaders (Currently, they are only reliably in one location – Potomac, MD). While there are some rather vocal opponents (I’ve read your letters)`, many of our more ‘open’ guests have done a nice job of pointing out the many upsides of accepting the living dead in their chapter. Pros: Having the undead as guests allows us to utilize a lot of first-year med students; it’s a natural way for them to get their ‘feet wet’ without exposing significant risk. The zombies are primarily flesh-eating (i.e. they won’t be hogging all the apples, bananas, and granola bars – like some people I know!) In all sincerity, they’re lower maintenance – we don’t need to check their blood pressure (they don’t have one). This allows us to save considerably on the cost of blood pressure cuffs. If we were to multiply this by 528 sites, well, you can imagine. Sure, there are a couple of issues: Several of our rotating Potomac physician leaders have expressed difficulty understanding their questions – saying that many of the zombies will just all talk at once. That, in it itself, would be okay, but most of the time it’s a low-pitched indecipherable groaning that drowns out other participants’ questions. They also don’t necessarily walk in the same direction. To put it bluntly, a lot of them just wander around the park aimlessly. There has been more than one collision this fall. Regarding having so many zombies together, appropriate concerns have been raised by the Montgomery County Division of Public Safety (MCDPS). In recent closed-door meetings, there is growing concern about a zombie apocalypse. We understand and that’s fair, but there’s an education process here. The odds of that going down are extremely unlikely. We concede that if it did, they are correct, that would not be good. There would be more than a small chance that it could potentially lead to a global breakdown of society that in turn would cause a massive rise of zombies that would engage in a general assault on civilization.So, candidly, I see their point. But again, very unlikely. The MCDPS also makes another valid argument. As a whole, they (zombies) are not deriving all the same health benefits as most of our other guests (they’re already undead). Putting these pros/cons together, like many decisions, it’s not easy. Let me please say this, if you do happen to go to the Potomac Walk with a Doc (Great Falls Park) this Saturday, please exhibit caution. I endured a minor zombie bite (left shoulder) on a site visit to WWAD – Potomac in late 2011. For the ensuing 5 and a half days I had an overwhelming craving for caraway seeds; listening to big band music from the late 30’s, and I refused to wear anything but the color orange. Now I’m better, but to this day we’ve never figured out why.I’m sorry, what was I talking about again? david |
| Disclaimer: The newsletter starting with ‘I’ll get right to it’ – is made up. The first part is very true. |