SuperBowl Saturday rounds
Me: "Who you got for the Super Bowl, sir?"
Him: "Nobody!"
Me: *laughing* "Nobody?"
Him: "Nawwwwl. I don't give no F--K about no Super Bowl."
Me: *chuckling* "Fair enough."
*trying not to laugh since he isn't laughing AT ALL*
Nurse: "Dr. Manning, I think he might be boycotting."
Him: "SAY WHAT?"
Nurse: *flushing his IV* "You know, taking a knee. Boycotting the NFL."
Him: "Boycott the WHO? Maaan. . . F--K a BOYCOTT."
Nurse: "Now you gonna stop all that swearing, sir!"
Him: "F--K that."
Nurse: *stares at him*
Him: *glares back*
*holding in my laugh as nurse walks out shaking her head*
Me: "How long you been cussing, sir?"
Him: *laughs out loud* "Since I was 9!"
Me: *laughing* "Nine?"
Him: "Yup. In the 1950s when I was standing outside downtown minding my business. Not breaking no laws or nothing. And this teenager come up to me talking 'bout some 'GIT OUTTA HERE, N---R!' And I looked around like, 'What I do? Git outta where?'"
Me: "Whoa."
Him: "That white boy say he just want me out his sight. Just 'cause. So I let him know what I thought."
Me: "Which was. . ?"
Him: "Every cuss word I could thank of!"
*laughter*
Him: "But when I got older I just like how some words felt in my mouth. And the folk that don't say the F word just don't know what they missing."
Me: *chuckling*
Him: "You ever been mad and tried to hold back a good F--K? Sometime no other word do the trick."
Me: "Ha ha ha that's real talk."
*laughing*
Me: "So what's the reason anyway? For the no Super Bowl?"
Him: "Oh, I'm a watch it. But really, I'm just trying to make it to another day, Miss Manning."
Me: "I hear you."
Him: "My granddaughter say 'Granddaddy why you don't boycott the NFL?' She say that all the time."
Me: *just listening*
Him: "Know what I told her?"
Me: "What's that?"
Him: "F--K that. I'm almost 80 years old and I'm black. My whole life a MF knee."
He laughed after he said that. But I didn't.
The more I do this job, the more I realize not to underestimate my patients. A little colorful language and cantankerous behavior don't mean that you don't know what's going on. Or that you ain't all the way WOKE.
Speaking of which, he also said this:
"And anybody that thank Brady ain't gon' send them Rams straight home with a L? They a F--KIN fool."
No lies told, man.
Haaaaaa.
Oh, how I love this job.
***
Happy Last Day of February.
Oh, I definitely know the joy of that word in my mouth. And I think that your patient used that word appropriately. Bless him.
ReplyDeleteI'd take a knee for HIM.
I love that man’s spirit. I love that he gives a fuck. And I’m glad a lifetime of standing up for himself didn’t get him killed. How awful and outrageous is it that we live in a society where I that thought occurred to me. As ms moon days, bless him. And his woke granddaughter. Of whom he is clearly proud.
ReplyDeleteIt breaks my heart that people go through this kind of discrimination and hatred, did and still do. Can't we see we're all the same? Why can't we see past superficial differences and understand that all of us are just trying to get by as best we can?
ReplyDeleteAnd I do it to sadly. Rich people, entitled people, they irritate the shit out of me and I find it difficult to deal with them and yet by my own definition they are no different. Hmmm.
I've missed your writing. Not only are you an amazing writer but an amazing doctor and human being. You make me think and I thank you for that.