LY #87 Making Conversation

 I forgot to hit the "publish" button on the following post last night.

I was talking about my blog this afternoon when my doctor was examining my "down there."  It made me think about how professionals will sometimes talk to you not because they are interested in  conversation but because they want to remove your focus from what they are doing.  In recent years this practice has been most noticeable to me when my chiropractor cracks my neck or my esthetician rips hot wax off my inner thigh.

I first noticed this particular behavior, however, when I was in grade school.  In those days some doctors still made house calls.  I remember being very sick with a terrible ear ache.  The doctor came to the house and, as Mom looked on, had me reverse position on my bed and lie with my head on an old pillow case without a pillow.  Then he started talking to me about what I was doing in school as he turned my head to the left.  At that moment I was thinking, "Why are we talking about school when I know you're about to do something terrible to me?"  And he did.  He poured something hot and purple into my ear.  I know it was purple because he poured enough in that it ran over my neck and onto the old pillow case.

What I learned from this experience was that doctors are tricky.  What I learn by looking back on it is that very early on in my life I was observing the communicative behaviors of others and questioning their purpose and effects.  Was I born a communicologist or did I become one because I observed the trickery of trusted adults and questioned it?

Inquiring minds want to know.