The Difference Between Concepts and Reality

By Dr. Bill Kraus

Motlow Buzz Contributing Writer

        We always talk in the classroom about the need to closely relate the concepts and theories of our subjects on the one hand to the realities and dynamics of the world around us. As faculty, we are always striving to try to bring this relationship for a clear grasp and understanding by our students.

Professor Dr. Bill Kraus

        I recently received the following email from a former student who, today, is going to law school in the evenings and weekends and working as a full-time nurse at a Middle Tennessee hospital during day shifts. I think she says it all… bridging the theories of life with the real-world happenings. I thought she did an excellent job, don't you? 

I'm sitting at the school library preparing for class. Estate Planning. I'm wearing scrubs because I was up at 4:30 this morning rushing around to get to work, just like yesterday and the weekend. Only as I sit here staring at pages with black letters running around on a page, I hear the professor saying, "Nobody ever plans on dying."

I suddenly want to go to the bathroom and cry. I want to scream. I want to hit the wall and have a major breakdown. Why? Because I hear the words of the professor, but I also hear something else. I hear an alarm overhead at work when I was just sitting down. I still recall the adrenaline as I jumped and ran upon hearing the Code Blue on my floor. I can still feel the fleshy breast of the woman as her chest caved under the chest compressions in hope of bringing her back to life. I hear the scramble and feel the crash cart hit my back legs as others arrived to assist. I feel the stretch of my muscles as we tried to get better access to the woman by moving her to the bed from the bench in the patients’ room.

The patient? I forgot about him, but he is in the shower unaware that his wife is dead! Twenty minutes later the doctor calls it. The man… his life is forever changed. And me? I'm now at law school removed from the Code Blues, grief-stricken glances, bated breath as family arrives in shocked silence.

Me? I've somehow got to get my mind ready for Estate Planning and recall that nobody ever intends to die. But I can’t help wondering what this little stain is on the pant leg of my scrubs? Scrubs I have to wear until I get home tonight and shower!

     Gives us some thoughts to ponder, doesn't it???