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The Older I Get, the Easier It Is to Be Useful
A few weeks ago, I closed a post with that statement. The conversation was short. The post was about the concept that if you can’t be rich or famous at least try to be useful. It got five comments and died as it should, I suppose.
Discovering the power of being useful at this late stage of my life has led to a profound transformation in my life.
I am blessed with skills of knowledge and communication that my medical degree and life experience gave me. The modern system of medical care delivery doesn’t seem to value that very much. I have found that there are people all around me who hunger for something that gets easier for me to provide every day.
The older I get, the easier it is to be useful. I think that is true no matter where your skills lie. I often wish I had the more useful skills that a mechanic or carpenter would have.
Published in General
It is not as if you need to have elite expertise. I have been helping a few friends with complex medical problems lately but last night Mrs. Pessimist was talking with a friend who is somewhat overwhelmed with being an unexpected widow and having to assume ordinary jobs of home maintenance that her husband had performed. Her swimming pool chemical balance was out of whack and she didn’t know what to do. I sent her a link to appropriate youtube videos and said that if she had problems the service tech at the Hayward company could probably help her. As it turned out, the combination of youtube videos and a short conversation with a helpful service representative made her life vastly better. He sent her the “cheat sheet” the reps use to explain the manual. I told her tonight that it would be nice if there were a cheat sheet for every manual.
“Truer words were never spoken.” was her reply.
Shame on you. That’s not a pessimistic attitude.
I am sure you were useful as a medical professional also. I find medical professionals useful for improving or maintaining my health.
If we don’t kill you.