A Hole in One

By Harvey Fish, D.C.

Dear Friends,

Today, I had one of those rare experiences that I know I will talk about the rest of my life. Not every day, mind you, but in the right set of circumstances it will become a story that can be told and retold. I might even tell my grandchildren as they nestle in close to my blanket wrapped legs, (by the roaring fire with my trusty dog, Red, snoring nearby… you get the picture), when I get to the age in which one finds oneself in such circumstances.

Was it a life changing experience? Not in a major way but I stood witness to one of the rarest of the rare of sporting events. Namely a hole in one. Some golfers can go a lifetime without one. Kind of like a 300 in bowling. In today’s event not only was the golfer just a rank amateur but he sank the shot during a tournament with a $10,000 prize for anyone who could do just what he did. This golfer called his office and told everyone of what had happened. They didn’t believe him and some of the witness’ had to get on the phone to confirm it. He had trouble getting through to his wife so I don’t know what her reaction was.

What struck me was that rather than the people he called being congratulatory they were immediately in doubt. Rareness of an event translated to an impossibility in their life experience. A kind of statistical unreality. They weren’t there, didn’t see it, couldn’t imagine the person in question in that situation and therefore denied the simple communication of this man of “I made a hole in one and won $10,000.”

Can you see where I’m going with this? Everyday in my office a person has an experience which to some in the lay world is impossible. The “miracles” of chiropractic are often if not usually hard to have another being “get” based on their experiences, their background, and their assumption of an other’s ideas as their own (usually their MD’s or a well meaning aunt or uncle or friend: .”..they can kill you… they’re quacks… but if you go don’t let them jerk your neck around, you’ll get a stroke”). “I mean, really, can cracking someone’s back cure CANCER?!”

So I pondered how to get past this point of a lack of understanding or even an openness to a possibility. Communication is what most DC’s are best at. But how to get to the folks on the other end of humanity to understand? I’ve had people carried into my office, literally screaming in pain, get adjusted and get off the table as if nothing was ever wrong with them. And since I have an open adjusting room this has happened in front of other people. I mean there were actually witnesses to the “miracle.”

To hear some of those who were there talk on another visit, you’d think that what they saw was only an illusion. They’ll ask me if that person just had a low pain tolerance or if they were just a bit of a hypochondriac or a drama king or queen. For some reason they sought to come to grips with their experience, make it fit in with past experience, and since it didn’t fit then try and explain it away as some fluke thing that “really didn’t happen” the way it did. Sheesh.

It’s at times like these that a little bloodletting would be good for the soul. Like mine after beating my head up against a brick wall.

So I, as most of you do, go on. We persevere in the face of the incredulity of others. I wonder why we do it? Is it because we know deep down inside of the “rightness” of what we do? Is it because the common thread that binds chiropractors isn’t the subluxation but masochism? Have you ever found one true way to get past the reality of the people you take care of?

Well, I know you’ll keep on keeping on. I go to the office every day knowing that across this world there are thousands of you facing the same hurdles and struggles that I face and I find my self comforted by that thought.

Thanks for doing what you do. I know that even if the average lay person doesn’t “get it”, it’s true nonetheless. We couldn’t do what we do if it were any other way.

Warmest regards,
Dr. Harvey

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Dr. Harvey Fish a is Magna Cum Laude graduate of Life Chiropractic College and a Fellow of the International Chiropractors Association. You can contact him at: [email protected]