20140714.0845

While I was showering this morning, I recalled a joke which I first read in Asimov but cannot seem to find this morning (and looking for it is what caused the delay in my writing this; I have been at it since half past seven), which I give in loose form below:

Bob had been plagued by headaches for several months before he final went to see a doctor about the problem. After several thorough examinations, many tests, and much wrangling with the insurance company about paying for them all, Bob got the news from his doctor: "I can cure the headaches, but the only way to do so seems to be to remove your testicles."

Bob considered the matter closely for a time, weighing the options, but in the end, the headaches were too much for him to bear, and he went under the knife. The headaches were indeed gone, but so were other things...

After his recovery, Bob thought to soothe himself a bit by buying some new clothes, and he went to a fine and reputable tailor to be fitted for them. The tailor took many measurements, among which many were already known to Bob. He knew, for instance, that he needed a 17-inch neck on his shirts and a 32-inch inseam on his pants. And so when the tailor said, "And for your drawers, a 36-inch waist," Bob knew something was off. He said to the tailor, "That can't be right. I take a 32."

Came the reply: "Oh, no. At that size, your balls will get bound up, and you'll get such terrible headaches."

The Good Doctor invites his readers to laugh at the matter of course, and the joke is funny in its reversal. But like most jokes, it teaches amid its humor, provoking laughter to open the audience such that a core message can be received. In it, there are multiple such messages to be found. One is that the erudite are not always right--or as right as they could be. The recommended procedure has the expected effect; it is successful in that it accomplishes what it seeks to do. The cost for it, however, is high, both in the investment of resources to achieve it and in the bodily sacrifice made (which has its own set of associations and sociocultural overtones). So perhaps the joke is also warning against the perils of too narrow a focus on things or, to invert the notion, of not appreciating the contexts in which things exist.

I worry about the anti-intellectualism towards which the first message tends, although I find that I am firmly on the side of the second. Context matters, and context is far broader than is often realized--which brings me to a third message the joke conveys: do not scorn the knowledge of any. Tailoring is a skilled craft, and there is much of value in the work of any craftsperson who is devoted to the intricacies of that craft. It has much to teach, just as masterful craft-work does in any field--if those who look upon it will pay attention. Works of craft are works of humanity, and by attending to them, we learn more about what it is to be human. And the divergent perspectives consideration of outside endeavors demands can help address the broader contexts in which we are all enmeshed, offering solutions to our problems that cause at least fewer problems of their own.