Member-only story
When I did a root canal a few years ago, my dentist prescribed me antibiotics that I was supposed to take every six hours. No matter how you slice or a dice 24-hour period, one pill has to be taken during the night. I thought that was no big deal and I set my alarm to 3 AM and woke up every night to take a pill, as instructed. A couple of days later I talked to my parents (doctors, mind you) and they were shocked that I was ruining my sleep to take the darn pill. “Six hours does not really mean six hours,” they told me. “Take 4 pills during the day in space them out. That’s no big deal. You need good sleep.”
To me, that came as a mix of surprise and duh-moment. The thing is, I am a good rule follower. A religious rule follower when it comes to important things like health. And because I am such a good rule follower, I expect that if I follow all the rules, I should get the expected fabulous outcome which, shockingly enough, is not always the case.
Rules and methods give us structure many of us crave so badly, especially true when life gets uncertain and out of control (in the case of a pandemic, perhaps). However, rules and protocols often let us off the hook. We stick to the rules and we assume that we don’t have to think any longer. Life becomes easy. Everything works. Until it…
