Contentment versus Excellence

Contentment versus Excellence

As a physician-in-training, I already joined the student chapter of the Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) of Canada. My activity level in the organization declined when I graduated and went into rural practice, simply because there were not enough physicians nearby to meet with regularly enough to form anything resembling a local chapter. Winnipeg, where I had been as a student, was a 90 minute drive away. When I moved to Brandon after 7 1/2 years in this rural setting, I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to form a chapter there with others who had been involved in their pasts as well. So it was though, that one year it was our turn to organize the annual provincial CMDS retreat. I think we were more in charge of the logistics than the contents, at least in its entirety. The topic had to do with excellence, and there was some debate about it from the side of those promoting it and those who had other thoughts.

This is an issue that I have struggled with for a number of years. I felt that God called me into the medical profession; it was nothing I had ever had my sights set on. It is a profession that has been challenging intellectually from the beginning. I have made it through with a lot of hard work, more than because I have any particularly superior level of intelligence. Thus, for me, it has always been somewhat of a struggle to maintain professional competence, let alone strive for what the profession would probably consider excellence in its broadest sense.

I attend conferences and take part in other activities with the aim of keeping up academically and professionally. However, I have never been an active researcher nor have I written anything noteworthy for publication. I may have made a few small local innovations but nothing of any magnitude or noteworthy in a larger way. When I later actually went back and successfully completed a residency re-training program to move from Family Practice to Psychiatry, I by default fell into a place where some would consider me an expert because I am now defined as a specialist. Indeed, I have even become somewhat of a sub-specialist, because my practice focuses on only children and adolescents, along with their families. To be sure, with the experience I have gained over the years, I do know a thing or two. However, even here, I would not consider myself a great practitioner of the art.

In part because this career was not something I chose, I must admit I have never been that passionate about it, as my wife knows all too well. My passion as a youngster and young adults was car design. However, as a Christian, I could not see that as a worthwhile career goal in a world that had much greater needs than that someone put their energies into designing cars. I had actually thought of architecture, as we would generally accept that we need to live in buildings. When I was even younger, and somewhat in overlapping years with my interest in cars, I had thought of being an ornithologist, one who studies birds. I still like birdwatching and taking good photographs of birds. I do the same with automobiles to a certain extent, but I limit that because for many reasons automobiles are not something I think I should be putting my energies into.

I have to confess also that I have not in some ways put as much into my career as I could have. I have not been at the vanguard of invention and innovation. Some of that was for two other reasons. I attribute these to the fact that I had learned a thing or to about life before I ever got into the medical profession because I came to it later than many of my colleagues. By that time I had learnt about the need for balance in life. For me, this somehow translated into not putting everything into my career. Even as a student and resident I had seen what happened to the personal lives of people who did that, and it wasn't where I wanted to go. The other point was somewhat related and had to do with privacy and regarding the independence of my family and personal life. As a husband and father I wanted to do my best in those areas. As a Christian, I also felt the need to be active in the church. Then, the need for balance also led to my continuing to pursue various other interests such as art, photography and music. The end result was that there was not a lot of room left for striving for excellence in my profession. Rightly or wrongly, my energies were being channeled into a number of different corrections and just did not allow for that.

Then I began to look at the whole issue of living the simple life and contentment. These are both principles that I, as an Anabaptist Christian, believe our Lord Jesus illustrated in his life and that we are therefore to follow. If one is content with something, if one wants to keep something simple, where does that leave the pursuit of excellence? I think many of us would agree that when we look at many of the advances, the so-called progress, of our increasingly complex society, beginning with the agrarian, then the industrialization, technological and now information-oriented society we live in, we have no more time for one another and we are no happier. We are told that we work harder and longer hours, that in most cases both partners of the family unit are working and that we get less sleep than we used to. To be sure, in some ways, with the infrastructure we have in place in our developed Western society for the provision of our shelter with its modern comforts, our water and sewer systems, our protection as well as distribution of food, life might be easier. However, I am not sure that we are any happier after a day at work bringing home the groceries or the "takeout," as is more common nowadays, than the caveman who came home with the fruits, nuts, grains or meat that he had caught for his family that day. We certainly have a lot more to pay attention to, or should I say be distracted by, to tend to and to take care of or look after than they do. Mind you, we don't have to be on the lookout for vicious wild animals or enemy clans at all times.

So what do you think? If we believe that we should be content with our lot, and try to live a simple lifestyle, is there room for excellence? What does excellence mean in that context? It is an obvious question I have not yet answered, and I have already started on the road to retirement from my profession!