The Backwash

Most are sick to death of hearing the healthcare debate.  I have friends on both sides of this fence, and to be clear, I am quite opinionated on it; but will NOT share my opinion here. I will, rather, look at one significant fact about which we have heard little.

Forget the mandates.  Forget the abortion issue.  Forget the constitutionality or non-constitutionality.  Forget the debt or deficit-neutrality claims.  Let’s go Econ 101 for just a moment and talk supply and demand.

We are about to see a demand curve take a hockey-stick growth rate.  A market that has been treating X-number of insured and some uninsured, will now have millions of new insured individuals.  Here’s the problem – despite this legislation, there is still a significant shortage of doctors – and no plans for addressing that issue. 

Think about it this way.  You are accustomed to going to a restaurant.  You typically wait about an hour for a table.  The same crowd tends to be there.  Now imagine that a lot of individuals who previously never went there just got handed gift cards to that restaurant.  It is a simple Operations Management nightmare – same number of tables, same number of servers, same space in the building, same typical customer set, plus a spike of activity for which you are not equipped.  The results?  Longer wait times, the need to cycle your food deliveries faster, and everyone gets frustrated.

Apply the same here.  We have the same shortage of doctors today as we did yesterday before the bill was signed into law.  What result do I see?  Longer wait times, and physicians trying to find a way to quota-out their available appointments to those patients who have insurance that pays the best.  I don’t fault them.  It’s economics.

And what happens when you have a shortage of professionals?  Well, that has already happened – and we can apply the lessons learned here.  It has happened in the airline industry with pilot shortages.  Things that happened in that industry?

• Reduction of flights
• An increase in pilots hitting their maximum hours quicker resulting in more canceled flights
• In the push for additional pilots, airlines relaxed their requirements for new pilots – so the person flying your plane who may have had to previously have 400 hours in certain equipment may now only be required to have 200 hours. 

Do we really want that in healthcare?  How far off are we from the medical boards relaxing standards in an effort to get more doctors practicing and dealing with the overflow of patients? 

Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it will affect you because your doctor only has so many hours in a day – and the rate at which we are seeing doctors enter the workforce is not as high as 20-years ago.  Have all the rallys you want on the issue – until this unfortunate fact gets dealt with, everyone will hurt.

-MH

I grew up watching “The Price is Right.”  Or, should I say the “real” Price is Right with Bob Barker asking us to spay and neuter our pets. 

I’m sitting in a car dealer waiting room waiting for a couple of things to be taken care of on my daughter’s car, and the new version of the show is on in the background.  Here are some observations.  Don’t hate me – they are just honest.

• Drew Carrey has packed-on about 500 pounds.  Merge “The Price is Right” with “The Biggest Loser” and THEN you’d have a show.
• Every person who actually has gotten onstage today has been so large as to cause seismic readings.  They are all winded after they make the three-step climb to Drew.
• Wouldn’t you hate it if you actually made it up to the stage and they open the curtains and you get a chance to win….A KEYBOARD with 10 lessons.  What has this show become??
• I have seen three inbred people so far.
• Whoah….a meth addict just got $1.00 on the showcase showdown.
• The sound effects are still the same as when I was seven.
• NOOOOOOOO!!!!!   The signal just went out whilst meth addict was doing the bonus spin!

As I said…don’t hate me.  It’s a bit boring in here!

-MH

There are always secondary effects of technological advances.  For example, the advent of SUV’s gave rise to the larger-than-18″-rim.  The innovation of the iPod led to the development of an entire line of portable media device accessories.

For phones, smart phones in particular, we get the “butt-dial.”  You may have been on the receiving “end” of one of these mishaps.  You lean a little too hard against a wall or stuff in a particularly large wallet, and viola! – you have just dialed the last number dialed on your phone – or something in your speed dial list.  Most likely, you have left a lengthy voice message of ambient conversation and sounds.

Let’s all rise up and try to minimize butt-dialing.  I’m not sure it will do much for the environment, but it will certainly help us avoid something potentially embarrassing.

-MH

7am this morning.  A FLASH emergency run to Wal Mark (which I love) to get vegetable oil.  This is critical.

Of course – only one lane is open…but no line.

I zip in.  The lady checking me out does the finger lick-open the bag thing (disgusting) and while waiting for my transaction to complete proceeds to use the wadded-up kleenex in her hand used to handle my merchandise and DAB HER RUNNY EYE.

One transaction – multiple points of potential DNA transfer for which I did not ask.

Moral of the story?  I’m better off not knowing about your oozing whatever – especially if you are making my food or checking out my groceries.  Take the sick day.  It’s better for all of us!

-MH

So I’ve been on this quest to re-read the Proverbs.  Admittedly, my reading velocity has been sluggish, but I’m continuing.  Today I ran across something that corresponds to today’s economic situation.

First, let me be clear that I do NOT think this is the “worst economic downturn since the great depression.”  That phrase is not only incendiary, but simply not in-line with the facts.  I, rather, believe this is the worst economic downturn since 1975.  The unemployment rate is not even 1/3 of what it was during the great depression, and the majority of Americans are not eating dirt.

Now with that said, I, like most of us, know first-hand situations of friends, relatives, and maybe even some of you good readers who have experienced job loss due to this downturn.  I certainly don’t mean to minimize the situation – I just want to look at the reality in line with the facts.

So how does Proverbs fit in?  Well, today I read Proverbs 23 and a couple of verses there hit me between the eyes.  Consider this from Proverbs 23: 4&5:

Do not wear yourself out to get rich
have the wisdom to show restraint.
Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Wow.

Solomon, richer than any human before or since (yes…Warren Buffet has only a percentage of the total worth of Solomon), describes wealth for what it is:  fleeting.

Can any scripture more aptly describe the last six months beginning in September?  Aren’t the stock market boards as well as banking institutions a case study that riches can be gone in a glance?  Haven’t you, like me, seen your 401-K value “sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle?”

Maybe it takes a (fill in your word here: downturn, recession, correction, bust, etc.) to help us realize that even many of us who are God-believers have been gorging ourselves on spending.  Maybe we are learning the lesson to “have the wisdom to show restraint.”

Don’t believe the hype – believe the facts.

• This is not the worst time since the Depression
• Proverbs 23 has a few things to tell us about times EXACTLY like this

And while you consider the facts, say a prayer for those affected by job loss during this time.  When I worked at Comcast, a gentleman I worked for named Kevin Gardner one day told me “good people don’t get laid-off” when I was considering hiring a person who had experienced job loss from another company.  Ten years later, I realize just what an idiotic and pathetically short-sighted comment this was (I hired the guy, by the way, against Kevin’s wishes).  Unfortunately, good people DO get laid-off, and they all need our prayers.  Despite your circumstance, though, don’t miss the lesson from Proverbs 23.  It can help us all to look at riches in a completely different way than the roaring 90’s and early 2000’s.

-MH

Me.  Deli counter.  Ordering meat.

This happens every week or so, and yesterday should have been no different.  HOWEVER…The nice meat-slicer lady didn’t understand what I wanted, and came around to the front of the case for me to point-out my selection.  Upon rounding the corner, on her way to me, she coughs (INTO HER GLOVED HAND, MIND YOU) what I could only term as a “wet lung-biscuit.”

At this point, I am trapped.  I looked for the cameras, because I was sure I was being punk’d.  After realizing it was not a joke, I figured I had three choices:

A)  Request she change gloves.  A very uncomfortable position.

B)  Assume that I eat things that have been through worse at most restaurants I visit.

C) Change my order from a pound to 1/2 pound to minimize waste, politely thank lung-biscuit and ditch the bag-o-meat on my swing through the poultry aisle…and return later to purchase meat product after L. B.’s shift.

I chose C.

-MH

The HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” is a case study in unity. In 1942, The U.S. Army assembled a volunteer parachute regiment to jump behind enemy lines. Within this unit was a company of men who found themselves at the forefront of the war in Europe. They parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, fought for the liberation of Holland, held the frontline in the Battle of the Bulge, and captured Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. This company sustained one of the highest casualty rates of the war. These were the men of Easy Company – 506^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101^st Airborne Division.

In a letter written to his commander long after the war had ended, Mike Riney, a member of Easy Company, wrote: “I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day, when he said ‘grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ Grandpa said ‘no, but I served in the company of heroes.’” Trust was essential for those serving together. Whatever the circumstances among those within their unit, whatever their disagreements or misunderstandings, they fought as one against unspeakable odds with a unified front. This unity was typified by teamwork – the ability to realize that no one person was a hero and that the goals were achieved as a team.

Maybe you have felt a taste of that type of unity. Maybe it was as part of a team, facing a larger, stronger opponent. Maybe it was a business goal achieved only with time and the commitment of co-workers. Perhaps it came during a particularly challenging time in your marriage, facing financial or family difficulties, when you and your spouse pulled together and made it work. That type of unity, the kind where you know you can count someone to weather the storm with you, is something that is hard to describe – but we know it when we feel it.

We Stand Alone Together

Easy Company was formed in July, 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Part of the extreme training of the time was to run up mount Currahee every morning. The name Currahee is an Indian name meaning “We stand alone together.” The run was one of the more difficult dynamics of the training, yet many soldiers would run it together at night on their own time to better prepare. This additional effort only strengthened the bond between the men.

How do we as Christians even begin to gain this type of unity? What experiences or training can push us to approach life with the attitude that “we stand alone together,” and is that even a legitimate thought?

One of the most beautiful passages on unity comes in Jesus’ prayer the night before his murder. Consider His words from John 17:14-23 (NIV):

“I have given them (Jesus’ disciples) your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (all emphasis mine)

Jesus makes it very clear to all of us who read his words that we are not of the world. The disciples were not, He was not, and we are not to be. We stand alone. He is also very clear that he wants us to be unified – in fact he prays for complete unity. A unity so evident, that the world gets the message that Jesus loves us and he lives in us; a unity so complete that even though we stand alone, “we stand alone together.”

A unity that is anything but complete?

Does the Christian community of faith have a unity that will hold-up under battle conditions? Or do we forget that the battle rages outside the walls of the church and deconstruct our unity with skirmishes inside?

Many of us with children have witnessed more than the typical disagreement. In fact, there are times when the sibling dialogue can get fairly heated. It is at that point that the parents come in with referee shirts and explain that as siblings they need to care for one another – even take-up for one another. How agonizing is it as a parent to witness children who do not look out for each other, and even maliciously create tension between each other? Is it the same feeling God has with us when we do the very same? How must God feel when we launch our attacks that do anything but build toward Jesus’ prayer for a complete unity? What must the father feel as he watches Christians who can read the prayer Jesus prayed the last night of his life; a prayer prayed with tears, a prayer prayed even for those who had not yet lived, and go into mutiny against each other?

Jesus prayed it because He knows we can get there. The unity can be achieved, but it is a unity that has to transcend our internal skirmishes. Our own commander-in-chief pointed out that “…whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:40). Jesus made this point as the disciples began to launch an attack at someone who they felt was not authorized to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. Maybe we would do good to remember the mindset of Jesus when it comes to doing battle. His focus was on fighting sin and saving the person.

A dream or an answered prayer?

I have had a dream that has been perpetuating itself for several years now. It is a dream that in my lifetime, I will be able to taste just a drop of the prayer of Jesus – to taste just a bit of “complete unity.” Imagine – those who call themselves religious coming to agreement on at least one thing, the fact that Jesus is the ultimate unifying force. He is the one constant on which we must agree. He is the only chance for redemption. Is that so much a dream, or will it be the answer to a 2000 year old prayer?

One thing is certain…when those who call themselves religious come to just that much agreement, the world will be changed. The world will hear of Jesus more loudly than ever before. The battle will take a significant turn, and we will truly begin to stand alone….together.

In August, I made a purchase.  I stepped-out and bought a Kindle from Amazon (Link below if you want to check it out).

I often speak about service letdowns, problems with thing like air travel, etc. – but this is a case where it makes sense to talk about what I think is the best product I have bought in the last two years.

Keep in mind…I travel a fair amount, so having an electronic book that actually reads like paper and is wireless is a perfect fit for me.  Since then, I have never been without a book, and when I run out of one, I just connect and buy another at a reduced rate from buying one in the store.

For me, this is perfect.  I have my bible on it, as well as (to date) another 20 or so books.  Capacity with the memory card I put in?  About 2,000 books.

Great, great, great product.  Now if I could just get it to turn the page for me using mental telepathy.  Ahhh… all these blessings causing all these problems!

Oh…and by the way…if you want one before March, you are out of luck.  Ever since “The Oprah” mentioned it on her show, they have been sold out!

-MH