The months leading up to graduation and after graduation haven't been very good blogging material. For one thing, the only thing I want to do is stop thinking about medicine. Also, blogging is pretty friggin' hard to keep going. Lastly, I've been going through a bit of a drought lately. Haven't had any relevant experiences or thoughts to write about.
Mostly though, I read an article on how bloggers all seem to be navel-gazing hacks who are too unaware to realize nobody reads their stuff. It felt like the author was writing about me specifically.
Well SCREW THAT.
I am SO aware that nobody reads my stuff. And so we continue...
I was walking home from a dinner of dumplings tonight when I saw a fight. At least, it was the beginning of a fight. It was three or four people and a dog versus two people and another dog. I see these people everywhere I go but I never really thought about where they come from or where they're going... You know those adolescent/twenty somethings who wear army boots and shorts and have towering backpacks and all kinds of piercings? The ones that look like they're from well off families but they're trying to be homeless? Or maybe they really are homeless. Maybe they're travelers. With dogs. I dunno.
I'm not sure what they were fighting about. It sounded like they were fighting about how cowardly the other side was when they suckerpunched each other somehow simultaneously. I started crossing the street away from them when they started punching each other again, and their dogs were barking and jumping and bandanas and earrings were flying everywhere...
I wasn't sure whether I should do something or not. The following thoughts went through my head:
Man, it's good he's punching with the soft ulnar side of his fist otherwise he might actually hurt someone.
Maybe I'd better say something.
What if they have some sort of communicable disease and they bleed in my eye or bite me or something?
Ah I should do something anyway.
Wait. Are these people worth it? Don't hobos get in fights all the time without me caring?
Are they hobos?
Aren't they?
Is it my business?
And therein lies the crux. Is it my business? How far should I go in intervening in other people's bisnatch?
I've met people who smoke around their asthmatic kids and refuse to quit. I've met someone who has vehemently refused to get a colonoscopy even though her entire family has died before 45 because of bowel cancer. Parents who purposely skip their kids' vaccinations. In my mind, all these people are dumbasses. Informed consent be damned. They need intervening.
However... It's their business.
So I walked away. I was probably making it worse. Adolescents have a primitive brainstem reflex that causes them to try to look tough when people are watching.
