Bad Endings

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has has been thrown out of Tunisia.  He ruled the country for twenty-five years, took a lot of money for himself, but stayed too long on the job.

Now it seems that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is having a tough time after thirty years.  As is President Ali Abdullah Saleh. who may have held on too long in Yemen.  The Middle East is trying to make  changes.

But it isn't just rulers who seem to reach ignoble ends.  I see several people in my practice who, given the difficult economic times here, are being forced out of jobs after successful careers: A long-time, well decorated member of a police force, an owner of a car dealership, an older lawyer who had been in practice for years.  I am even seeing a very successful salesman for a national corporation, and it is clear that he has out-priced his usefulness.   They are making it clear that after almost thirty years they want someone younger and cheaper.  It has shades of Willie Loman.

it probably isn't fun being Brett Favre at this stage in his career.

Here I am trying to makes changes myself.  My own profession is, again, going through turbulent times. Again they are looking for new ways to (not) pay us.  We are being blamed for the high cost of health care, when we have not only not received an increase in fees for over a decade, but now most insurance companies are cutting back.  It's easy to feel unappreciated.

So while I deal with my own feelings I have to deal with many people who feel that twenty to thirty years of their lives amount to almost nothing.  It is difficult to convince them that they have done a good job, supported themselves and their families, and accomplished something worthwhile, when they are made to feel that they are no longer good enough, and no longer necessary.

There are few good endings, not too many gold watches any more.  But at least most of my patients are doing better than the Ceausescus did on their way out.