{"id":61513,"date":"2019-02-04T15:40:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T20:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=61513"},"modified":"2019-02-08T07:32:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T12:32:09","slug":"righteous-indignation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/righteous-indignation\/","title":{"rendered":"Righteous Indignation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you ever notice that some authority figures really<\/em> don\u2019t like it when lay people question them? I remember the following incident quite clearly:<\/p>\n

I was in college in nineteen-eighty-something, before the era of smartphones, GPS or even MapQuest. When we wanted directions in those days, we had to ask someone. At the time, I was looking for a store on MacDougal Street in Manhattan\u2019s Greenwich Village. I walked one way from the subway station and didn\u2019t find it, so I walked the other way and still didn\u2019t find it. I saw a police officer on the beat so I figured I\u2019d ask him.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me, do you know where MacDougal Street is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that way.\u201d (He pointed in the direction I had first tried.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure? I just came from \u2013 \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cI already told you, sir<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, it\u2019s just that \u2013 \u201c<\/p>\n

At this point, he turned his back and refused even to acknowledge me. To me, this would seem like an overreaction in any event but his righteous indignation seems especially misplaced when one considers that he was wrong<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Regular readers may recall a series of articles<\/strong><\/a> I wrote a few months ago following back surgery. The first doctor I saw, before the spine specialist, read my X-rays and diagnosed me with scoliosis. I questioned this because, while one can<\/em> get scoliosis as an adult, it doesn\u2019t happen overnight. I had recently completed physical therapy for a limp and I was pretty confident that, had I been tilted to one side the whole time, the various doctors and physical therapists I had been seeing would have noticed. The doctor dismissed my hypothesis with a hand wave and \u201cX-rays don\u2019t lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was back a few weeks later, having my MRIs read, and the doctor said, \u201cHuh. I guess you don\u2019t<\/em> have scoliosis.\u201d (I give the doctor full props for walking it back, unlike the police officer years earlier.)<\/p>\n

The reality is that I don\u2019t<\/em> know the neighborhood as well as the cop on the beat but I know where I\u2019ve been. I certainly<\/em> don\u2019t know medicine anywhere near the level of a physician but I know my own medical history. Lay people by definition are not experts but that doesn\u2019t mean that we have nothing to contribute.<\/p>\n

Throughout Tanach, unwillingness to listen to others or to admit that one doesn\u2019t know something is a sign of arrogance. Some examples:<\/p>\n