Sunday, November 4, 2007

Mentors

As I sit down after playing guitar non-stop for over like 4 hours (and after reading most people's blogs that are doing the daily blogging), I feel the need to write a little somethin somethin. I just got back in town from a Continuing Education seminar in Raleigh, NC. Veterinarians here in Georgia have to have 30 continuing education (CE) hours every 2 years to maintain their license. Anyway, at this conference, there was a professor/clinician I had at vet school. He was/is a mentor of mine and he is awesome...I mean he has his own Infectious Disease Book (Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat). Dr. Greene is an amazingly smart doctor. One time during one of our clinical rounds sessions, he asked me if I had considered this one particular bacteria as the cause of this cat's swollen joints. I of course answered no (in my mind I said heck no). Dr. Greene then chimed up, "It's on page 430, 2nd paragraph on the left hand side." I was like, "Wha?!" I got out his book at home and checked his referencing skills. He was exactly right! Way too smart for me! Well, he is also really stinkin funny. If you know a little about medicine, steroids (not the kind that's plaguing are sports these days) do have some benefit, but also have some bad side effects. Dr. Greene will not call these steroids by their name. One in particular is Prednisone. He calls it "Vitamin P", or "Pixie Dust", or "the exogenous unmentionables" to name a few. He used to randomly call me after I graduated, introducing himself as "El Presidente" or "god" and ask if I was keeping my "gun in my holster," which meant that I was not using any steroids. I would tell him of course...I was a little bit of a brown-noser. Anyway, before I left for North Carolina, I picked up 2 toy guns with a holster and put "P"s on all the handles. I gave them to him before one of his talks and he thought it was pretty funny. He actually used them in a few of his sessions! Again, I am a little bit of a suck-up.

You are probably wondering where the heck I'm going with this. I do have a point, just be patient! As I thought about Dr. Greene and how he has influenced how I practice medicine, I began to think of other "mentors" in my life that have influenced or affected me. The first person I thought of was Kevin Mann. He has been so instrumental in my walk with the Lord and my passion for worship. He is such a kind, gentle and wise man of God and I thank the Lord everytime I think of him. Kevin, if you do read this, I plan on coming up to Nashville the weekend of Nov 17-18th. I hope to see you, Mandy and Bennett!. Then I thought of other mentors of mine. Here they are in no particular order: Bill Tanner, Mark Fritchman, Tom Tanner, Steve Hambrick (miss you dude), Clay Kirkland and of course, my dad. All of these people spoke words of life, wisdom and encouragement into me, whether through meeting one on one, praying for me, teaching and admonishing me, or just simply being my friend.

What I've realized is that I need to tell these people that they have been a huge part of my life and have helped mold me into who I am today, and that I need to thank them! So, if you are on the list and you read this blog, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

I encourage you to think about those who have affected and influence you and find them! Find them and tell them thank you. I just hope one day someone will find me and tell me how I influenced them. It would be such an encouragment to me!

Grace and peace.

6 comments:

brad said...

Fritchman?! Yikes!

ManUtd17 said...

Fritchman?

Really?

Really?

Boggsy said...

Yeah Fritchman! Crazy I know, but in between instances where he was teaching us all how to make ourselves pass out, he was a tremendous youth pastor!

brad said...

I am just hacking on Fritch. My favorite foursome to play golf with is me, Fritch and anybody else.

Boggsy said...

I know yall were just kidding. I don't think I've ever played golf with him. I'll put that down on my "To Do" list.

ManUtd17 said...

Fritchman is a goof ball, but I love him. And having watched him develop, I know he's a great student pastor and mentor.