I was swapping stories this morning with a doctor friend, whom I have worked with off and on for the last year or so. Quite randomly, he casually mentioned that he has been making violins. As a former fiddle player and lover of all things music, I was suddenly fascinated to be speaking with someone who possessed the time, talent, and patience, to make something so very beautiful. I enjoy woodworking myself, but I typically go forth without any real plan in place. I just like to build stuff. What he does however is truly art, and I was captivated by it.
The good doctor explained to me that a good and proficient violin maker can produce a violin in roughly 250 hours. Through every step of the process, the smallest of mistakes can ruin the project and all you are left with is a pretty piece of firewood. I found myself wondering what it would be like to go through the extraordinary and procise tedium of making a violin, only to make a single small mistake near the end, and have it all be for not. With a violin, actions are absolute. There is no fixing them or hiding what you have done. It’s either right or it’s not. Period.
I know a lot of people that think this way, and it always amazes me how they never see the ridiculousness of it all. These people, I find, tend to exist on either the far left, or the far right of the spectrum, and refuse to entertain the idea that there might be a mutually beneficial middle ground. I had a teacher once tell me that being an Independent, really just means that you can not hack it in either party, be it republican or democrat. I remember being told as a child, for a spelling test as I recall, that the last three letters of Republican spell “can”, while the last three letters of democrat spell “rat”. I think I was about ten years old at the time. The indoctrination of personal beliefs is best achieved in one's youth after all.
The fact of the matter is, when we fall victim to this “All or Nothing” brand of thinking, we all become casualties of a broken system. The repeal of Obamacare is a wonderfully failed example of this. On one side of the isle - let's call this side the left - representation praises the Affordable Healthcare Act as a necessary step in providing for the wellbeing of this nation's citizens. On the other side of the isle - the right - representation equates the Affordable Healthcare Act to a socialist idea meant to bring about the fall of the free economy. It’s a terrible realization that they are both right.
With this example, we have representatives of both parties squaring off against the opposition, and the result is a majority of the American people being left in a state of purgatory, just waiting for a decision to be made, a decision that will never come.
Obamacare does not work as advertised. The efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare will not work as advertised either. The reason for this, is that both sides hold so tightly to the idea that they are absolutely correct, they can’t begin to recognize how wrong they are. And unlike the process of building a violin, rather than recognizing that a mistake was made and starting over to make sure it is done correctly, the legislature just keeps on carving away at the problem.
If an artist such as my friend the good doctor did this with a violin, the result would be a poorly constructed piece of garbage, with no hope of ever making beautiful music. I guess that is where we are at with the Affordable Care Act. At least a failed violin has the potential to keep a few people warm for a moment or two.
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