Triage

One of my favorite aspects of getting a medical education is how medical concepts and images seep into everyday thought and parlance. So, for example, exposed wiring at the base of a telephone poll begins to look like the brachial plexus. Or the sites of complicated road intersections can only be described as anastomoses.

My current imported concept is triage, which is mostly about prioritization, but connotes a sense of urgency, of impending disaster if not executed correctly.


Triage is becoming my mantra because I have a sense that the world could implode very soon. As faceless stormtroopers crush protests at the RNC and journalists are crushed to the ground screaming, our possible next vice president seems to be fond of burning books, and Roe v. Wade seems more threatened with every passing moment, choosing how to spend one's time is of the utmost importance.

In that vein, today I took an hour to phonebank for Obama. There are countless ways to spend your time, many of them worthwhile and productive. But to me, this is what is urgent now. If this election is lost -- the patient's death, by my analogy -- I don't want to know that I didn't do everything I could to save it.