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Tattoos for the millennium
EDITORIAL
Tattoos for the Millennium Well, you can't get rid of me just yet! Nope, not quite. Although it seems as though I was being escorted to the door (sans the handcuffs), never to return, something else has dropped in the way to occupy my free time. The exile will have to wait. As I assume the position of Journal Editor, passing from Interim Journal Editor, there is an anticlimatic cloud that hovers over the transition. Although I am looking forward with vigor to the challenge of the Journal, I can't help but reflect on the last year of the century, the last year of my service to ACFAS, and the first year as Journal Editor. It is somewhat ironic that although I never took an English course in college, and hated it in high school (I got a C), they asked me to do this! All right, you can get your laughs on me as you read this, as you deduce that my writing style corroborates my curricular deficiencies. Let's just be thankful the computer can correct my back alley grammar. Oh I suppose I could jump on the millennium bandwagon and espouse a bunch of cliches about what a great year we will have and how things are going to be different and better. I suppose that I could make several promises to you all that I will make a difference in this new position or what great opportunities we will have in the new millennium. Get serious! I would rather take this space up talking about what I learned over the last 7 years, but I didn't learn a damn thing that I didn't already know. No, not a damn thing. Oh sure, I learned about the inner workings of professional associations, but the information will soon become meaningless. Once I escort 7 years of files to the end of my driveway for the garbage collector to whisk away, there will be little tangible evidence of my service. I never hung the plaques up and when I autoclaved my gavel, it fell apart, so what do I have left? Some things can never be taken away, regardless of the transition, be it one from one century to the next, or from one position to the next. Truly valuable things cannot be stripped away from one's being. And most certainly they don't waver depending on the season, time in history, or circumstances. Dignity? Anyone recognize it? Try and explain it, make some sense of it. Oh, we all have a diffuse sense of what it means, but it is difficult to put to words. Yet we all know what it feels like when we lose it or when we compromise our integrity. Integrity? Anyone
John M. Schuberth, DPM
recognize that? Now that's a little easier to define, but we all probably differ on exactly what that means. Why is that? Why would a simple English word have such different meanings to individuals? Funny, even though I missed out on that class, I learned more definitions for that word than the number of ways to cut the first metatarsal for hallux valgus. I admit that some of these definitions stretch my sense of logic, much like some of the claims that are made in some of these cults that pervade California. There will never be a universally accepted definition of integrity, yet it seems so simplistic and so pure. Academic integrity, journalistic integrity, professional integrity, and, most of all, personal integrity. They say that to work effectively in any situation, whether it is a professional association, a personal relationship, or even in the care of your patients, you must learn to compromise. Compromise is an elemental concept that we embrace along the way, and thus we conform lest we tempt socially acceptable demeanor. As an editor, much of the job is compromise, or brokering a compromise. Yet how do you do that without the loss of academic integrity? Sell out? Stick to your guns? It's not so easy sometimes, yet it's necessary. When it comes to editing a journal, it seems like these boundaries
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1999
379
are tempted, but seldom crossed. The process seems to work, and when you read the journal, you get what you see. Integrity? The reason for the discrepancy in defining this word, of course, is that there will be situations that are more or less important than a journal article. Well, the stratification of import is another subject, but what we really mean is: when can we cross the line? When is it acceptable to cross that line between maintaining integrity and political, ego-enhancing manipulations? Champion your platform above all costs? Or rather, "do the right thing." Seems as though there was never any class in school called the "right thing," yet it is a fundamental essence of everyone at one time or another. Deep down, we all know what that is. Too bad not everyone gets that tattoo. Or if we did, it seems to fade as rapidly as our ability to rationalize our behavior escalates. There will always be pretenders, or posers as they are called in California. The pretenders. " Is that a rock group? .. a song of the 70s? Or does it describe some of us? Making you nervous? Well it should! It is high time we realize that life is not a perpetual masquerade party. If it were, we would all get a set of costumes that we
380
THE JOURNAL OF FOOT & ANKLE SURGERY
could change at will, depending on our needs. Eventually, one may just discover that one has run out of costumes! "What you see is what you get" may finally have some impact. Some time ago, I ran across a book about the history of surgery. Although I must have staggered into a library to encounter that book, I can't seem to locate it anymore. Nevertheless, I remember one particular passage that sticks in my mind just like those tattoos. Although it was referring to the behavior of surgeons when approaching a solution for a patient, the message can be applied to everything, every day. It stated, "Learn to do the right thing ... Or do nothing at all." No costume is required. Whether it's the year 2000, 3000, or 1000 B.C., these concepts have driven human behavior and will continue to do so. Although I don't have an interest in a tattoo parlor, I hope to see you there. Just remember, as you muster up the courage to submit to that needle and ink without your costume, that the only ones who the pretenders fool, are the fools themselves. Happy new year!
John M. Schuberth, DPM Journal Editor
Tattoos for the Millennium Well, you can't get rid of me just yet! Nope, not quite. Although it seems as though I was being escorted to the door (sans the handcuffs), never to return, something else has dropped in the way to occupy my free time. The exile will have to wait. As I assume the position of Journal Editor, passing from Interim Journal Editor, there is an anticlimatic cloud that hovers over the transition. Although I am looking forward with vigor to the challenge of the Journal, I can't help but reflect on the last year of the century, the last year of my service to ACFAS, and the first year as Journal Editor. It is somewhat ironic that although I never took an English course in college, and hated it in high school (I got a C), they asked me to do this! All right, you can get your laughs on me as you read this, as you deduce that my writing style corroborates my curricular deficiencies. Let's just be thankful the computer can correct my back alley grammar. Oh I suppose I could jump on the millennium bandwagon and espouse a bunch of cliches about what a great year we will have and how things are going to be different and better. I suppose that I could make several promises to you all that I will make a difference in this new position or what great opportunities we will have in the new millennium. Get serious! I would rather take this space up talking about what I learned over the last 7 years, but I didn't learn a damn thing that I didn't already know. No, not a damn thing. Oh sure, I learned about the inner workings of professional associations, but the information will soon become meaningless. Once I escort 7 years of files to the end of my driveway for the garbage collector to whisk away, there will be little tangible evidence of my service. I never hung the plaques up and when I autoclaved my gavel, it fell apart, so what do I have left? Some things can never be taken away, regardless of the transition, be it one from one century to the next, or from one position to the next. Truly valuable things cannot be stripped away from one's being. And most certainly they don't waver depending on the season, time in history, or circumstances. Dignity? Anyone recognize it? Try and explain it, make some sense of it. Oh, we all have a diffuse sense of what it means, but it is difficult to put to words. Yet we all know what it feels like when we lose it or when we compromise our integrity. Integrity? Anyone
John M. Schuberth, DPM
recognize that? Now that's a little easier to define, but we all probably differ on exactly what that means. Why is that? Why would a simple English word have such different meanings to individuals? Funny, even though I missed out on that class, I learned more definitions for that word than the number of ways to cut the first metatarsal for hallux valgus. I admit that some of these definitions stretch my sense of logic, much like some of the claims that are made in some of these cults that pervade California. There will never be a universally accepted definition of integrity, yet it seems so simplistic and so pure. Academic integrity, journalistic integrity, professional integrity, and, most of all, personal integrity. They say that to work effectively in any situation, whether it is a professional association, a personal relationship, or even in the care of your patients, you must learn to compromise. Compromise is an elemental concept that we embrace along the way, and thus we conform lest we tempt socially acceptable demeanor. As an editor, much of the job is compromise, or brokering a compromise. Yet how do you do that without the loss of academic integrity? Sell out? Stick to your guns? It's not so easy sometimes, yet it's necessary. When it comes to editing a journal, it seems like these boundaries
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1999
379
are tempted, but seldom crossed. The process seems to work, and when you read the journal, you get what you see. Integrity? The reason for the discrepancy in defining this word, of course, is that there will be situations that are more or less important than a journal article. Well, the stratification of import is another subject, but what we really mean is: when can we cross the line? When is it acceptable to cross that line between maintaining integrity and political, ego-enhancing manipulations? Champion your platform above all costs? Or rather, "do the right thing." Seems as though there was never any class in school called the "right thing," yet it is a fundamental essence of everyone at one time or another. Deep down, we all know what that is. Too bad not everyone gets that tattoo. Or if we did, it seems to fade as rapidly as our ability to rationalize our behavior escalates. There will always be pretenders, or posers as they are called in California. The pretenders. " Is that a rock group? .. a song of the 70s? Or does it describe some of us? Making you nervous? Well it should! It is high time we realize that life is not a perpetual masquerade party. If it were, we would all get a set of costumes that we
380
THE JOURNAL OF FOOT & ANKLE SURGERY
could change at will, depending on our needs. Eventually, one may just discover that one has run out of costumes! "What you see is what you get" may finally have some impact. Some time ago, I ran across a book about the history of surgery. Although I must have staggered into a library to encounter that book, I can't seem to locate it anymore. Nevertheless, I remember one particular passage that sticks in my mind just like those tattoos. Although it was referring to the behavior of surgeons when approaching a solution for a patient, the message can be applied to everything, every day. It stated, "Learn to do the right thing ... Or do nothing at all." No costume is required. Whether it's the year 2000, 3000, or 1000 B.C., these concepts have driven human behavior and will continue to do so. Although I don't have an interest in a tattoo parlor, I hope to see you there. Just remember, as you muster up the courage to submit to that needle and ink without your costume, that the only ones who the pretenders fool, are the fools themselves. Happy new year!
John M. Schuberth, DPM Journal Editor