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May 1999
Second Wind
Lomita, California
Dear Friends:
I had just
checked into the hotel of the University of Indiana in Indianapolis
for the purpose of being visiting professor the next day. After
unpacking I was seated comfortably on the easy chair with a convenient
foot rest. I tried to turn on the T.V. using the remote control
selector. The T.V. was stuck on an information channel and it
would not advance. I immediately assumed that there were dead
batteries in the selector, but manual controls on the set itself
did not change the channel. I called the front desk and they sent
a maintenance man to investigate the problem. It only took him
an instant to open a control panel and push a button, which he
said, would reprogram the
television set to conform to the cable offerings that were amenities
of the hotel. I watched the channel indicator go through a display
of 99 consecutive channel numbers, 2 through 99. After it passed
99, it ended again on channel 2. Now try your selector, the maintenance
man said. It worked perfectly and as I thanked him, he simply
said, some things need to be reprogrammed.
This is such
a simple story, or so it seems: an electrical method of reprogramming
a television set that is not on track. It illustrates the utility
of an internal safeguard system. Let me put this simple scenario
into human perspective. When we get off track, who reprograms
us? When in despair and out of sink with the joys of life which
should be ours, how can we recover?
Sometimes it
is a "wake
up call" that reprograms us after a near
disaster. At other times, it is a special event in life such as
an anniversary, a unique occasion, or a birthday. In any case,
our own self
contained ability to reprogram our lives is a capability that
we don't
always utilize. Yet, we are endowed with this ability if we would
only employ it.
We need to
pause and reconsider how lucky we really are. It's
not what we don't have, but what we do
have that is important.
I will be in
touch next month.
Your friend,
Thomas Petty, MD
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