People continue to surprise me. If I'd thought about it ahead of time, maybe I would have seen the storm coming, but I have to admit, I didn't expect the contentiousness that I witnessed today.
There is currently one hospital in my hometown, and one under construction. Many of the doctors at the existing hospital are long-time members of my Rotary group, and they are quite proud of their community-centric hospital. One of those doctors has spoken eloquently in my presence about the founding of their hospital and its mission statement, but I don't think I could do it justice if I tried to repeat it. Today we got to hear from a couple representatives of the new hospital under construction. It did not go well. Doctors, politicians, and business leaders alike all had the same essential question: why exactly do you think we need a second hospital? I never imagined that they would be so fiesty. Territorial I probably could have expected. But the tension in that room was palpable. The question and answer session went on longer than the PowerPoint speech part. It's not the vibe I have come to expect from these lunches. I don't know what to make of it.
It was actually pretty interesting, all the drama. But I think I'll be happier if this sort of thing is rare. We had a speaker at writers group too, but it was so much tamer. "Just" a local journalist who had the skinny on who owns whom for all of the newspapers in the state and where the future of the industry lies.
After all that, I am quite pleased to have the day off tomorrow, to hang out in my Park, where signs of Spring are busting out all over. Flower season is nearly upon us. I need to delete old photos off of my camera and out of my cloud, so that I can fill up all my storage space again.
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