Well Side or Sick Side? The Waiting Room Divisions
Some time ago, I found myself sitting in my doctor’s office for a routine annual test. It was the first time I noticed that the waiting room had been divided into two sections: one clearly marked “Well Side” and the other “Sick Side.”
I figured I belonged on the Well Side. But before long, I noticed someone else in my section coughing persistently. I’m sure the new division is meant to limit the spread of germs. Still, since everyone is breathing the same air in the same room, I wonder how effective it really is.
Why, after all, do healthy people go to the doctor? I like my doctor, but I don’t just drop in because I think he might be lonely and then pay for the privilege of keeping him company.I also couldn’t help wondering whether this well/sick division might eventually spark a class-action lawsuit. Perhaps one group will claim discrimination because they can’t see the TV as well as the other, or because the “well” patients have to walk farther to reach the bathroom.
Maybe the Census Bureau will soon add two new categories to divide us by: sick and well. Politicians might then begin courting favor with each group, offering targeted benefits to win their votes.
As I sat there pondering these two emerging political powers, a bigger question occurred to me: What should the real criteria for membership be?I was on the Well Side because I was there for an annual checkup. But I get that checkup to make sure my medication isn’t making me sick. And I take medication because I’m not entirely well. So technically, I don’t qualify for the Well Side—otherwise, I wouldn’t need the meds in the first place.
That realization suggested I should move to the Sick Side. But then those patients might give me something, so I refused to acknowledge that I belonged there either.In reality, all of us in that waiting room must be sick in some way, or we wouldn’t be there at all. Perhaps the signs should simply read “Somewhat Sick Side” and “Sicker Side.” At least that way, we’d all be in this together.
Considering the deep divisions currently facing our country—divisions that seem constantly widened by the media and politicized by elected officials—maybe creating even more groups isn’t the wisest path forward.
Perhaps the better approach is to eliminate unnecessary divisions, promote better understanding, foster genuine cooperation, and work together so that everyone is along for the ride. Ultimately, whether we are well or sick, old or young, rich or poor, one color or another, one religion or another, one political party or another, or one ethnicity or another, we must remember this: Within the borders of the United States of America, our goal is to be one people—Americans. The divisions we choose to align with, or into which we are born, must never prevent us from achieving that.
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