Article archive / December 1, 2009
Originally published: . Volume 1, No. 4. Source pages: 2.
While raising our three teenagers in the ‘90s, a favorite of both generations in our household was American humorist and writer, Jack Handy, famous for his SNL “Deep Thoughts.” One in particular has always been a useful tool.
Handy begins the story with a person walking past a “river of molten lava.” We used it so much that we jumbled it to “You’re walking along the edge of a volcano…” But the next part of the story is the same for everyone. You drop your keys in. Everyone knows about dropping keys. Almost always you are going to do whatever is needed to fish them out of anywhere they’ve escaped, but molten lava is the line.
Handy set the image so absurdly, thinking of someone reaching down into molten lava to retrieve their keys, that we’d all bust out laughing and chime in to the last part of the story, “Let it go, ‘cause man it’s gone,” about whatever was the loss du jour.
It’s that way with Prescriptive Authority for some of us, those of us who felt this was a feather in the cap for psychology, and had been worth fighting for. Ten plus years of work, over .5 million dollars of other people’s money and maybe that much home grown, the creation of training, testing, and standards, models and legislative support. All for psychology to become an entry level position to something else, and to have a mini-board under medicine.
After hearing the rationale, seeing the new forms on the Medical website, learning that the Advisory Committee met at the Medical Society, I think the best approach is to review Handy’s punch line. Because man, it’s gone.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.