Grateful for Our Social Contract

"In our social contract, we have provisions that see to it that you take care of people who need some help." - Arlen Specter

I've been following the shutdown of the American government with great interest these past few days.  Of course I get to do that with the distant eye of the spectator.  My access to government services wasn't cut off yesterday when the shutdown occurred.  I won't be missing a mortgage payment because my employer sent me home while the very congress which determined my services were non-essential, continued to get paid because somehow they believe theirs are.  As a Canadian, the debate over universal health care is a bit mystifying to me.  I live in a country where we do believe access to healthcare is a right, a part of the social contract like education, safe food and clean water.  Looking after one another is the way our country developed.  Our very survival amidst the harsh climate of Canada necessitated it.

Today has been a long day.  My house was a hive of activity this morning with my cleaning lady, the contractor who is renovating Jacob's bathroom, the security system repair guy and one of my clients all arriving within the same hour.  When my client exited around 10:30, I thought the chaos was done but I checked my messages to find an urgent request to get in touch with my friend David.  It's been a tough week for David.  He hasn't been feeling very well and was awaiting the results of a CAT scan to tell him whether or not he had lung cancer.  In truth, I've been pretty freaked out too.  I immediately called him and he told me that he was experiencing crushing chest pain and severe shortness of breath.  He had a number of client commitments today and didn't want to let anyone down.  What did I think he should do?  Okay, it seemed pretty easy to me. Of course I told him to call 911.  If he was having a heart attack, his clients wouldn't be better off with him dead at the end of the day.  After several minutes of negotiation, I got him to agree that I would pick him up and take him to emergency - not ideal in my mind but the best I could get him to agree to. So off I went.

The emergency room staff at Mt. Sinai were fantastic.  They saw to him in very short order.  They ran a series of tests, called up the results of the CAT scan and provided us with results.  No lung cancer, no heart attack.  Just a virus that had settled into his lungs.  They gave him a puffer and asked us to wait a few hours during which they would keep him for observation and repeat some of the heart tests for good measure.  They put us in a small quiet room in emerg and gave the okay for me to get us both some lunch.  So for four hours, we stayed, David in what he said was a very comfy bed and me next to him on a chair.  We pulled out our respective computers, discussed the statement of claim we've been working on for a mutual client and debated the language of a non-solicitation clause in another client's contract.  All in all, the afternoon was productive.  They ran the tests again and an hour later David was released.

As we walked out of Mt. Sinai this afternoon, we talked about feeling grateful for such an incredibly luck day.  No cancer.  No heart attack.  No hospital bill.