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Humanity in HoCo


There are plenty of things that are bothering me this morning. It occurs to me that my readers would probably appreciate more than my daily laments and rants. We all have plenty of our own.

I have been wracking my brain to think of one positive local thing that I’m prepared to write about today. To be honest, the best thing that happened to me yesterday was that I went to a doctor’s appointment full of trepidation and came away reassured, largely because the doctor treated me like a human being. The doctor practices in Columbia so we’re going to count this as a local story - - okay? (Let’s call this artistic license.)

A brief sermon here: every time someone treats you like a human being or you treat someone else like a human being the good released into the world is powerful, no matter how small. It’s hard to keep that in mind right now, but it’s absolutely true. If you’ve read the blog for any length of time you are familiar with this quote from Aesop:

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. - - Aesop

Listening to and interacting with someone with genuine respect and empathy is a deeply kind thing to do. When we experience that we carry away a kind of a glow - - a reaffirmation of our own self worth. How desperately we all need that, especially today. 

I wonder how people develop the capacity to be so respectful and affirming. And why others just…don’t. 

Here comes some bonus content. As I left something sparkly in the waiting room caught my eye. It was a Christmas tree* in the corner of the room. Something like this.


On the very top was something I didn’t recognize at first. Something brown. With googly eyes?



Holy moly, it was a poop emoji pillow*. But that’s not all. It was wearing a hat.



It was a hot pink sequined cap* that looked rather like a shower cap until I realized it was meant to be a surgical cap. 

Could it be that I was looking at a colonoscopy tree? I mean, it was a gastroenterologist’s office.

I did not laugh out loud but I definitely chuckled all way to my car. 


*****

Are there places in Howard County where you routinely come away with the feeling that you’ve been treated like a human being? Feel free to give them a shoutout.


Village Green/Town² Comments


*These are not my photos. All were found using a basic Google search.

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