Rural wannabes
Mary Johnston, MD
Revelstoke, BC
CJRM 2001;6(3):207.
Rural docs know the difference between manure and bullshit. Manure is that sweet smelling end-product of farm animals that if applied properly will help your garden grow. Bullshit is that odiferous by-product of bragging that only makes the ridiculousness of the producer grow. In rural medicine here in Canada, three kinds of bullshit are being peddled. This situation is making it difficult for real rural docs to be heard.
1. Non-rural rural bullshit
This kind of bullshit comes from those truly non-rural types, who hang around in their jeans and try to look and sound rural — but their only association with "rural" is having been somewhere near the suburbs. This scenario does, however, show that rural is now HOT — not like in the 80s, when it was NOT. The only problem is that these rural wannabes want to do all the talking for us real rural docs.
Just because we may be of fewer words and hold fewer meetings does not mean we are unable to articulate and represent ourselves.
2. Weekend wannabes
These too are city slickers who hang around in mod jeans, but they actually do spend their weekends and time off in rural Canada. They therefore feel they are the "real" rural guys. They collect cowboy stuff, and occasionally go on a trail ride, or fish or hunt or snowmobile or mountain tour. Many even have a cabin or a home in the country. But they don't want to work here or associate with the locals in any meaningful way. No, they prefer to hang out with other rural wannabes; where they definitely feel more comfortable.
3. Rural sympathizers
These folk experienced rural life for a short spell, but soon fled back to the city. They took a few rural sympathies with them. Rural sympathizers like to speak for us real rural docs. They believe that their brief but terrifying rural experiences somehow outweigh what we have experienced during the many years we have worked here (and loved it).
There is a huge difference between sympathy and empathy.
So how do we make ourselves heard amongst the cacophony of rural bullshit? Rural folk don't go to the country, they are part of the country. They don't experience rural life, they live it. And, most of all, when they talk about rural life you can hear the freedom and independence and pride in their few but meaningful words.
Just listen.
© 2001 Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
