The Mormon Monk

. . . Mrs. Monk and I have such a happy marriage . For those not in the know, we're celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary today, and thanks to Jena Pincott's Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? (a fascinating read on "the science behind sex, love, and attraction") I now understand the reason for our marital bliss. In "a study on marital happiness . . . psychologists at UCLA found that . . . [t]he best predictor of a good marriage . . . is when the wife is much hotter than her husband. Presumably, the husband works harder in the relationship and is less likely to cheat, and the wife feels more secure" (Pincott 236). As you can see for yourself, this would explain why the beautiful Mrs. Monk . . . is happily married to me:

A poem in honor of my nephew, Benjamin McKay Orton , on the occasion of his eighth birthday: Inside, a ewe cried out in pain; Outside, the very sky was torn By lightning and full sheets of rain The night my crippled lamb was born. The doctor had prepared a shot And moved with haste to take the life That nature had so dearly bought With bloody, elemental strife. I should not have, and yet I cried Out, “Stop!” and volunteered to care For that small life which else had died Without my intercession there. I spoke, and he, he looked aghast, Till pity moved him to explain: “You’ll save the lamb--but at what cost? What of your freedom will remain? “This crippled lamb will tether you, Discourage you from leaving home; In years to come you’ll grow to rue This lamb you cannot leave alone.” My soaring spirits fell back flat, Depressed. But when push came to shove, I held my ground, determined that Mere reason would not conquer love. Yet in the intervening years, I learned that reason’s price is s...

From now on, you can call me Dr. Monk--at least if you're one of my students. As of Tuesday, I've completed all requirements for a PhD in early American literature, which leads me to wonder--now that I am a doctor and NOT a graduate student any more (hooray!)--are there things that I should do differently? Fortunately, there is a book to answer my question: Jerome Groopman's How Doctors Think . To be fair, Groopman's book is much more interesting than its title would suggest (which is saying something, since I found the title to be quite intriguing). It would be far more accurate to title his book, "How All People Think in Certain Situations, With Illustrative Examples from the Medical Profession." Groopman's basic point is simply this: because doctors are subject to lapses in judgment and the curious tricks that the human brain plays on us (more on this in a bit), patients need to be their own advocates (or have a relative/interested party present to be a...