{"id":148,"date":"2013-09-26T15:12:15","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T22:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=148"},"modified":"2018-07-25T19:23:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T02:23:23","slug":"john-grisham-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=148","title":{"rendered":"John Grisham was Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Final<\/a><\/p>\n

I offer Exhibit \u201cA.\u201d\u00a0 Proof positive that most people don\u2019t choose their jobs as much as their jobs choose them.\u00a0 Exhibit \u201cA\u201d is a vocation smack atop the \u2018Who in the world would chose that job?\u2019 employment pyramid.\u00a0 No, not portable toilet cleaner.\u00a0 No, not North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un\u2019s food taster.\u00a0 It\u2019s a job no high school student on this planet has dreamt of holding (yes, even the ones smoking dope behind the gym).\u00a0 The job is prestigious; nonetheless, it\u2019s often quite literally <\/i>the butt of the joke.\u00a0 Bingo. \u00a0You got it.\u00a0 I speak of the lonely, and much maligned, proctologist.<\/p>\n

On the first day of medical school, when the professor asks for a show of hands on the interest in various specialties \u2013 neurology, pediatrics, dermatology, do you see any hands rising for proctology?\u00a0 Do you see one hand?\u00a0 Is it even on the list?\u00a0 Do you see one brave soul raising his hand for \u201cother\u201d and announcing, \u201cProctology, Sir\u201d?\u00a0 (Remember, each of these students is going to choose a lab partner to share a cadaver.\u00a0 First impressions count.)<\/p>\n

So when exactly does someone take the sharp bend in the road that leads to the glamour of proctology?\u00a0 I have a theory.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually one I stole from John Grisham\u2019s book, The Rainmaker<\/i>.\u00a0 I would like to say it was based on careful peer-reviewed research, but that would violate my policy against doing research.\u00a0 I avoid this drudgery with my own brand of \u201cresearch,\u201d which I refer to as \u201cResearch-lite.\u201d\u00a0 (Yes, maybe I have been drinking too much Miller beer).\u00a0 My policy is that if I can\u2019t find an answer on my iPhone in under eight seconds (I was going to say ten, but who\u2019s kidding whom?)\u00a0 I make it up.\u00a0 Try it.\u00a0 It\u2019s great.\u00a0 Example \u2013 38% of all professional baseball players drive American made cars.\u00a0 (Sounds authoritative, doesn\u2019t it?)\u00a0 For all I know, 90% of them drive Yugos.\u00a0 Back to my John Grisham inspired theory.\u00a0 In Grisham\u2019s The Rainmaker<\/i>, a doctor tells the protagonist that one of the reasons he went into oncology was that there wasn\u2019t much competition.\u00a0 I mean how many people want to drop the Big News on one poor soul after another?\u00a0 So I figure the same goes for proctology.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard that the process of trying to land a residency in neurosurgery is practically a knife fight.\u00a0 On the other hand, the proctology department is no doubt serving tea and cookies to coax students into their program.\u00a0 The waiting room during interviews is probably a ghost town.<\/p>\n

Think about it.\u00a0 There are only a couple of ways for a proctologist to view the \u201csubject\u201d or \u201ctarget\u201d as it were, and they both require that the doctor either sit on one of those little stainless steel stools, or crouch down for a good look.\u00a0 (And to think that I once quit a job because I didn\u2019t like the view.)\u00a0 Amazing.\u00a0 After sweating the grades through primary, middle and high school, and then skipping all the parties in college to get the grades for medical school, this is your reward.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it\u2019s deeply fulfilling in its own way.\u00a0 I\u2019m serious about that.\u00a0 I SAID I\u2019m serious about that.<\/p>\n

That said, while some folks are able to steer their vocational ship in the general direction of their interests, the wind blows where the wind blows.\u00a0 (And most proctologists hope the wind doesn\u2019t blow, if you catch my drift).\u00a0 We\u2019re all along for the ride.\u00a0 So there you have it.\u00a0 Exhibit \u201cA.\u201d\u00a0 Game.\u00a0 Set.\u00a0 Match.\u00a0 Edwards.<\/p>\n

Note from Jack Edwards:\u00a0<\/b> If you enjoyed this week\u2019s column, please consider using the various \u201cshare\u201d buttons\u00a0\ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Also consider \u201csubscribing,\u201d and we\u2019ll email you the column each week.\u00a0 Just click on the menu symbol in the upper right hand corner of this page if you\u2019re on a desktop (the three horizontal lines), or scroll down if you\u2019re on a cell phone.\u00a0 It\u2019s free, and we promise not to do anything with your email address other than send you the column.\u00a0Thank you!<\/p>\n

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WAIT! \u00a0You\u2019re not done yet.\u00a0 Earn good karma!\u00a0 Please comment and share on Facebook, Twitter or your other favorite apps.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a Three Minute Vacation for your Brain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out these great books:<\/p>\n

The Lawyer\u2019s Song: Navigating the legal wilderness<\/em><\/strong> at \u2013<\/p>\n

https:\/\/buff.ly\/2K41Tax<\/p>\n

Seven Rules for the College Playground –<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/buff.ly\/2IqXxgn<\/p>\n

Seven Secrets You Need to Know to Hire the Right Lawyer –<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/buff.ly\/2roFIov<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I offer Exhibit \u201cA.\u201d\u00a0 Proof positive that most people don\u2019t choose their jobs as much as their jobs choose them.\u00a0 Exhibit \u201cA\u201d is a vocation smack atop the \u2018Who in the world would chose that job?\u2019 employment pyramid.\u00a0 No, not portable toilet cleaner.\u00a0 No, not North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un\u2019s food taster.\u00a0 It\u2019s a job […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[56,37,58,59,57],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","tag-john-grisham","tag-naturopathic-doctor","tag-proctologist","tag-proctology","tag-the-rain-maker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1407,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}