Just a warning…the title has absolutely nothing to do with this post…
So, recently there has been a recurrent theme I find popping up repeatedly in my life…
Bridges…
Specifically, creatively bridging the gaps between groups, cultures, interests, sides, and whomever else I am required to interact with. I’ve realized the tasks I’m engaged in – namely, medical school – will require bridging the experience of a patient and the culture/knowledge of the therapeutic communities that the patient interacts with in an attempt to seek health…
What is bridging really though?
It’s ultimately communication. A physical bridge, like the Brooklyn Bridge is a physical means of communication – it allows you to effectively, drive/walk on water, cross mountain ranges, or walk through the sky. A media bridge like you might have on a computer is one that allows two devices to communicate. The media, is a bridge between common people and a powerful few others who desire to influence a large number of people. Again, ultimately the entire name of the game is communication.
It’s that way in all of life, medicine is not unique – and from almost any perspective you view something through, communication is the crux of just about any and every problem we have as a society. We have people who are homeless, jobless, and hungry – not because we don’t have enough homes or jobs or food – but because our leaders have been unable and/or unwilling to communicate a clear and succinct strategy to a wide enough audience.
Our standing in the world, educationally, isn’t declining because our students aren’t as smart or have an intrinsically lower work ethic or threshold for work – but because the both the importance of education isn’t conveyed as adequately. To compound the problem the messages (packaged as lessons/lectures/etc…) are falling flat on their faces because they are uninspiring.
Our scientists, unassured of scarce grant money and space in the industry, compete instead of collaborate. Academia is it’s own little colosseum – complete with warring factions, gladiators, and slaves fighting for their lives (in this case careers). Competition is what people do when they cannot communicate enough to collaborate in a mutually beneficial manner.
Molecular biologists and physicists are able to analyze data in a myriad number of sophisticated ways, but are ill-equipped to necessarily know what information is data, and what information is secondary…it’d be much easier if they could communicate with quarks and DNA…but there aren’t many tools to do that.
Neither central boards of economists, nor a stochastically based “invisible hand” can manage to properly value and allocate our resources. Not because the underlying theory is necessarily wrong – but because on a fundamental level, there are assumptions made about prices, market flexibility, and a whole host of other economic terms I’ve forgotten that influence valuations of resources improperly. The improper valuations are what lead to the improper accumulation of wealth and the imbalances that we see in our society.
I’m reminded of a term used loosely when I was a firefighter who would go to emergencies with people who were either – unconscious, incoherent, or didn’t speak English – the medicine that we were doing was “veterinary”…we had to rely on different parameters and strategies to communicate with our patients.
The other day I was at the City Clerk’s office and while I waited – I watched a trio of children play. Two children were Spanish and one was Chinese. They were all curious and desired to play – but the Spanish children obviously didn’t speak Chinese, and the Chinese girl didn’t understand a lick of Spanish. But they were undeterred.
They played a game of what I can only describe as a hybrid of peek-a-boo and tag. The Chinese girl would attempt to sneak up as close as possible, without being seen. But once she was spotted, the two (very young) children who spoke Spanish would run full-speed at the Chinese girl yelling “Ola”. She would immediately freeze, until they almost reached her, at which point she would turn around and run away smiling and laughing…
Eventually the parents of the Chinese girl needed to go, and so she left – and the Spanish kids chased her a little farther than normal – a sort of paralingual goodbye. Communication is what we as a species have built civilization on.
In fact, there are fables about communication in biblical literature. Growing up, in church one of my favorite stories – and one that oddly left me feeling conflicted about the morality of trying to learn Spanish – was the story about the Towers of Babylon. The story, roughly, goes that a group of men decided that they wanted to be greater than God. So they planned to build a tower to Heaven. They were reaching heaven when God suddenly struck them down – and when they woke up, they all spoke different languages, thus halting their project.
The lesson I’ve taken away from this, in my adulthood is simple: mankind has almost limitless, immortal potential…as long as we can communicate effectively.
We never complain about biases that politicians have, because we feel that we are able to replace them. But we do complain about media bias. The most charismatic, popular, attractive people in our society forgo politics, mostly because there is greater power to be had by being in the media.
Building bridges…
An interesting metaphor for our power.
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