Good morning!

I woke up early this morning so I wouldn't sleep in (until 11:30 like yesterday), and usually start my morning with coffee and the previous night's episodes of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Oh, yes. I'm such an adult.. beginning my day with hot, black coffee at 6 am and watching the news.

Wait. I drink my coffee with lots of creamer, I didn't wake until 8:45, and I watch pseudo-news. My mistake.

Neither of the shows are on Hulu yet, so I seem to have woken up for nothing. There was an ad for a new show called Mental, so I turned that on to its pilot to see what it is like. So far, I don't really have much of an opinion, but there was a very, very interesting monologue that Dr. Jack Gallagher, new "boss" to the hospital performs at his first staff meeting.

I've been thinking about the Church lately, and what it means to have church on an ongoing basis. Of course, I enjoy the hours-long conversations both in order to get to know others and to discuss different topics within Christianity, the worship and fellowship; but I've been wrestling with as if it is adequate. Yes, it is adequate for ME; me, personally, benefits greatly from this.. to a point. We have to, as Jesus did, dine with others who are not at all like us. In this, I believe we will encounter incredible intelligences and thoughts on our own behavior and the works of Jesus. In that, our conversations could be so much more interesting, even than they are now.

This isn't to say that every meeting of the Church should be with others, outside of our comfort zone. Or maybe it is. I'm sure it has to come from a gradual move to that. Maybe not. For me, it seems to be about comfort, which is.. null and void, in my opinion.

Back to the monologue. I think it fit very well.

Dr. Jack Gallagher, to his new staff at his first staff meeting.
"First staff meeting. Hot coffee, juice, jelly doughnuts. The problem is we're in here, and they're out there."
"Who's out there?"
"Patients. See gang, I'm thinking this whole secret society thing isn't the best way to go. So, starting today, I've invited a few of the patients to sit in."
"You want us to discuss diagnoses and treatment in front of the patients?"
"Bang on! There's a tendency, and I'm as guilty as anyone, to wall ourselves off from the people we're here to help. But it's really more their hospital than ours. We work for them. They have the right to be involved in their own recovery."
"But we're MDs, not social workers."
"MD! Medical doctors, not medical deity. It's their heads."