« View All Blog Posts

The Rest of the Story

Posted on Jun 5, 2008 by Brad Hall

You know how you sit in the theater after a great movie watching the credits roll hoping that there’ll be some extra morsel or tidbit, some additional scene at the end that gives you some closure or insight or at best one more bite of a great meal? You don’t? Well I do (even though nowadays they tend to save the extra stuff for the DVD)....and you know what…After watching Smoltz’ press conference yesterday I’m hoping against hope that he’s got one more scene, one more act.

His body of work has been one of the quintessential performances of my lifetime. He is the face of, the guts to, and the heart of my team. I can’t and won’t believe that the credits are rolling on his career and that I won’t get to see him throw that slider in anger ever again.

God bless Dr. James Andrews (the best thing about Alabama) who has been inside Smoltz’ arm four times already. Please Dr. Andrews, make one more miracle. Chipper summed up the moment best, “this is just devastating.” I couldn’t agree more.

I’ve got a pretty funny story about the one time I met Smoltz, but it’s not funny enough to turn the blog’s somber tone around, so I’ll save it for the blog when we collectively rejoice Smoltz’ return to the mound.

Let’s talk about something else…I went down to south Georgia last week (Thursday and Friday) to give a couple of CE lectures. Dr. Bill Argo hosted a group in Macon and Dr. Jeff Capes hosted a course at his office in St. Simons. It was so much fun. I make a lot of jokes about my “South Georgia speech impediment”, but I swear those guys south of the Fall Line understand the words coming out of my mouth better. They laughed at the right times and their questions afterword actually matched my topic…

..SIDEBAR…Yes, I became somewhat sensitive about my accent when I got to dental school (candidly that’s the first time anyone brought it to my attention that I had an accent) because of a comment by a classmate (“countriest sounding guy in the class” I believe was the verbal knife that cut me so deeply). Heck, (the use of the word “heck” in this sidebar probably reinforces the validity of their opinion…other transition words that might be only slightly worse are: Aw Shucks, Golly, Gee Whiz, or Tarnation)...anyway…heck, it really does sound like Peter Jennings in my head…(sorry that’s an old joke, pre-Jennings’ death, and though I probably should substitute Matt Lauer or Stone Phillips, it’s like a comfortable old pair of shoes…it just feels right).

The take home message here is simple, I guess: the dialect of English that I speak is only fully comprehended by the indigenous peoples residing south of Macon and north of Florida…SIDEBAR END….

...anyway, the lectures were a lot of fun and I got to catch up with some old friends and some new ones. Dr. Capes’ office was spectacular (St. Simons wasn’t too shabby either) and Dr. Argo is one of the classiest gentlemen I have met in a while.

Finally, I think I promised you all a story in the last blog….As you know by now I love my job and I take it very seriously. I am passionate about all aspects (including stewardship) of this great profession, which should come as no surprise to you in light of the years I spent teaching. In fact, zeal is not something that I’m often in short supply of…so the story….During the time I was teaching I produced what I called a “mission statement” (I know, I know, very cliche and Jerry Maguire-esc) for the residency program in which I was teaching. Of course, you know I wrote this in a feverish weekend of frenetic clarity…when Kim was not home. I had long one sided phone conversations with Dr. Rockman (poor Dr. Rockman, what a friend)...I wore circular patterns in the carpet from pacing…I ate little and slept less.

So Kim gets home. The house is dirty (so am I), and I’ve lost weight and look a little crazy. (Pretty much what she’s come to expect when leaving me alone for more than 24 hours)...

...ANOTHER SIDEBAR….Did you know that single women live ten years longer on average than married women and married men live ten years longer than single men…think about that…we probably do suck the life out of them….SIDEBAR END….

So fast forward a couple of hours and my loving wife is making dinner and I’m in the living room finishing off my masterpiece. Coveting the praise that I need to survive, I called to Kim, “Hey, listen to this and tell me what you think.”…..and I began. I read only two or three paragraphs and stopped for my kudos….I got silence. After a protracted pause that I could take no more of, I inquired, “What do you think?”

“Honestly?” she asked.

(Now here’s where you should always tap out. No matter what you think, you never want the truth. Jack Nicholson was right…anyway..)

“Honestly?” she asked.

“Sure.” I answered.

“That’s not a mission statement…...that’s a manifesto,” she said with the blunt force of all the truth you could ever hope for or pray against.

...So there you are. I’m one step up from Timothy McVeigh. At least I have indoor plumbing….

OK. So since we started the blog by talking about bonus clips, here’s the bonus clip to that story. The Republican National Convention just happened to be on TV shortly after the Manifesto business and Kim and I were lying in bed flipping through the channels. This was the RNC at which our beloved Zell Miller spoke (the conspicuous Democrat in the lineup…the inference being that he felt so strongly about the moral direction of the country and “rightness” of what he had to say that he would cross party lines on the biggest of stages). Now we didn’t see his speech but we did stumble onto his post speech interview with Chris Matthews. Unfortunately, Zell’s earpiece was not working well (he was on the loud convention floor and Matthews was in the booth) and he could not hear Matthews’ questions. He began by yelling loudly and incoherently to overcome the audio problem. This slowly devolved into frustration and anger and a sense that Matthews was somehow making fun of or disrespecting him. Miller soon became fully incensed at Matthews and the situation and his demeanor became more and more volatile and venomous. Matthews’ awkward amusement became gas on the fire and Miller’s rant became unintelligible (see Saturday Night Live’s subsequent musings at Miller’s expense)......

Kim and I sat there taking in the spectacle in silent amazement as if watching a train wreck in slow motion. When it was over I turned the TV off and we lay there in silence. Then Kim, as she is so apt to do, deftly sensed the moment and said, “Do you see how sometimes really passionate and really crazy look a lot a like?”

Enough said.

Anywho…hope everyone’s having a fun summer. Remember, Smoltz will be back and I’ll see you in the chair.

Tagged: smoltz, dr james andrews, dr bill argo, dr jeff capes, macon, st simons, mission statement, zell miller