Faith and "Works"

Dear Diary,

A regular customer came to buy some Neurobion but I had only 1 box left. She is a white-haired close-to-90-years-old Chinese lady who speaks very fluent English. She smiled and made some remarks that one box would still last her till a month later… Very nice of her… =) Guess what… then she praised me that the cream I prescribed for her condition worked very well. In fact, she was impressed that with just a few questions, I diagnosed it correctly and gave her the correct cream. I couldn’t remember what cream that was but I did not ask either, haha… must pretend that I still remember… keke…

Apparently, her deceased cousin was some top doctor. “Why do you want to become a chemist? Surely it is still not too late to study Medicine? I am sure you can be a good doctor.” She said. She had that look that you normally see in movies for those wise old women, hahaha… Well, it is nice to be praised. Then again, she doesn’t even know that my profession is known as a pharmacist and not a chemist… at least not in Singapore! The pharmacist professional is still veiled and some people think we concoct potions. Yeah… maybe I can go make some love potions now, hahaha…

In contrast, there was another male customer who came in and challenged my pharmacy assistant the efficacy of minoxidil for hair-loss. After all, if my pharmacy assistant has not much hair… the preparation we promote can’t be useful. Then he said he understood that a cosmetic surgeon cannot do surgery on himself and so could be proficient but yet ugly. No excuse for pharmacists. I gave him a sound rebuttal (which got him shocked and agitated) and continued on to educate him on allergies, side effects and personal choices. “For minoxidil to work well, you have to take for life. My pharmacy assistant did not feel the need to do that. It’s a matter of choice.” I told him sternly. How disrespectful some people can be. Anyway, that 30 + year-old chap left my pharmacy thanking me profusely. Need to wake him up a little! My suddenly defenceless 50+ year old assistant took a little while to recover his composure I guess. =P

A fellow colleague who was my former university classmate, came all the way to my pharmacy to pass me the boxes of Neurobion that I desperately needed. It was nice of him but then he released a tirade on how he was so frustrated with some unfairness which permeates the company system and the abusers involved. Hmmm… yeah, life is never fair anyway. I listened and I thought he cooled down pretty quickly. He probably just needed to release some vented frustration. =) Similarly, I always look forward to locum pharmacists coming to my pharmacy… so that I can just talk to fellow professionals and release some stress bottled up at times. Working is never a real bed of roses, especially when you have superiors, subordinates and colleagues to handle. Then again, working in a retail pharmacy is definitely better than an enclosed office system where politics abound.

About the question of we having free-choice… yes, we as humans are created with the ability to make our choices freely. If not, we will not be able to love God freely. We are not puppets dangling from some celestial strings but morally significant agents capable of altering the course of history by the choices we make. However, it does not imply or endorse the contemporary notion of “autonomous choice”, where whatever I choose becomes right for me by virtue of the fact I choose it. I think we must really know that we are finite and fallible beings, hence our choices do not always match the universally valid standard of rights and wrongs. In essence, our choices simply determines whether we accept the ways of God, or reject them and suffer the consequences.

We need to really keep in mind the things beyond this material world. The poor is better off than the rich because the poor still think money will buy happiness; the rich know better. The Christian religion can’t be invented… because based on the nature of humans, will they ever invent a religion that commands us to give up our lives for one another, to overcome evil with good, to love our enemies? Would anyone design a God who dispenses severe judgement? The answer is No.

When people create their own religion, they create gods and goddesses in their own image, with limited powers and subjected to human interference, and maybe even display all human weaknesses and vices. These may be hard words but do think about it.

God Bless,

Andrew