Another thought

So I'm in the hospital today working with a guy just finishing up his pediatric psychiatry residency and we go to visit a fifteen year old kid with diabetic ketoacidosis, who's living in a foster home, and also has bipolar disorder type I. Naturally, he takes a minute to warm up to the strangers that just walked into his room, and then I watch the resident building a relationship of trust with him. He asks him what it's been like dealing with the diabetes and his home life and the bipolar, and the kid kind of shrugs. The resident says, "I bet it's pretty shitty."

And at first I thought, he's just saying that because he's trying to get this kid to think he's "cool," but then as I thought about how hard this kid's life is, and how awful the experience he's through is, and it occurs to me just how appropriate the word shitty was. ee cummings was one of the first guys to say that there's a word that evokes a particular emotion, and that a really great writer (or communicator I suppose) can find the perfect word or phrase for every situation. It would have been cheap and patronizing to use anything but a profanity in that situation. "I bet that's pretty crummy" just doesn't do the situation justice. I don't think it's an unlimited license to curse, but I really believe that there is a time and a place for strong language.

On a completely unrelated note I am listening to Ryan Adams right now, who might be the most influential musician in my emotional development, and in this song "Halloweenhead" he says "Guitar Solo" right before the solo. I love when artists do that. I have these moments when I fantasize about what an awesome rock star I would be, and I think I would do that. It's like how the Darkness shrieks "GUITAR!!" before their solo, or how Eddie Vetter says "Make me cry" right before a Pearl Jam solo. I just think that's cool.