Becoming minimal II

[Barrett Dorko]

I stopped by yet another orthopedist’s office on my way home yesterday to drop off a personal note about his patient and some promotional materials. I didn’t bring any doughnuts though.

Beneath this man’s portrait on the wall is a description of his training in “minimally invasive” surgery.

In fact, when you look at any of the surgical specialties you’ll find a continual push toward smaller incisions and more precise technique. As more and more about the inner workings of the body was discovered it was assumed correctly that they should be disrupted as little as possible when intervention was required for the resolution of a problem.

It occurs to me that a good counselor says less and less as the years pass. Think about that.

I’ve not watched my own profession take a similar path. In fact, we’re now encouraged to become increasingly loud with our exhortations and add even more “passive” movement to our manual interventions.

But the fourth law of simplicity is “Knowledge makes everything simpler.” (find it here and search the phrase “Simple Sunday” to find the other nine)

I do less, and sometimes almost nothing in the presence of chronic complaints of pain because of what I know, and I know more all the time. So, I presume, does that surgeon.

Now I have to figure out how he can come to know me.