Organorama 6/1 [antikvár]

Just an ordinary doctor. To be absolutely honest, I see myself as rather an ordinary doctor. Now and then I might, perhaps, get a little conceited, show a slight inclination to exaggerate things and maybe fly into a temper too quickly, but, generally speaking, I consider myself to be an inconspicuous member of society, who, like so many others, does his job unobtrusively and averagely well. I'm sure l'm not a show-off and that these stories of physicians with their noses in the air have nothing whatsoever to do with the sort of doctor that I represent. Now, as Fate would have it, I became, a few days ago, a hidden spectactor of that game of games, "Playing Doctor", as they call it, organised by one of my children and his young friends. My son was elected as candidate for the medical profession and set up practice in my sunlit garden. He turnéd out of his trouser pocket an old stethoscope (in which I recognised a cherished relic of my student days) and hung this ceremoniously round his neck. Then he took a toy hammer from another trouser-pocket and pushed this, handlé uppermost, into his breast-pocket. After this he sat himself down on an upturned orange-crate and rang an invisible bell, which was apparently to summon the next patient. "What have you come for" he muttered curtly, all the while glancing through somé imaginary papers. "l'm suffering from pneumonia" said his friend, gazing wide-eyed at the stethoscope. My son, who had obviously not bargained for this disease, answered shortly, "Now, don't say silly things or I shan't be able to carry on the way Father does". "Headache, then", suggested the "patient", to which the "doctor" reluctantly agreed. I shall spare you all the details, but I really must confess that I had completely underestimated my own offspring when it came to hard-hearted conversation in generál and ranting at patients in particular. "Am I really like that?", I ventured cautiously, during lunch. "Much worse" came the frank reply. "I left out half of it as I was afraid you might not like it. Of course I could see you sitting there behind the curtain". It has often occurred to me that other people must find doctors rather irritating. And l'm only an ordinary doctor!