Pharmacy & Religion

Dear Diary,

It is awfully late already but I thought I should just add something. Today… oops… or maybe I should say “Yesterday” since it is already past twelve midnight. Anyway, yesterday was one busy day. I could barely catch a breather. In the morning, a pharmacist reported sick and I rushed down to that nearby branch to work for about an hour before proceeding to my own pharmacy after that. Stocks were coming in, customers were queuing up… sometimes, I just wondered why everyone in the world started to buy blood glucose monitors, electric massagers and blood pressure monitors from my pharmacy… AT THE SAME TIME! It was hard to cope. Then, there were the numerous roster requests through emails… the incessant phone calls from fellow pharmacist colleagues and the public alike.

It was nice that the Wyeth sales rep came along. =) Love to be bribed by her complimentary bottle of Centrum multivitamins. I waved away most of the phone calls, asking my assistant to answer them for me. Talking to the rep was quite refreshing because she just spoke about topics that those people around me never speak about anymore. It was nice to be talking about our previous colleges, our secondary schools… apparently, some of my secondary schoolmates ever “stalked” her all the way home and she was terrified, haha… and how she has that “convent girl” look. I must admit she do have that look. There is always something attractive about having that “convent girl” look. Don’t ask me, it just feels “English” and “Arty”.

Something struck me though. In the midst of the conversation, she said that if only she were a pharmacist. It suddenly dawned upon me that although my colleagues, my university classmates and almost every one in the pharmacy profession are whining about how hopeless our profession is, there are actually people hoping to be like us. To work like us, to dish out advice just like us too! I told her to go take the PharmD in NUS next year, hahaha… That sales rep seems particularly interested in the Catholic identity. I told her that she can contact me anytime if she ever wanted to attend my Anglican church in the Christmas season.

If it felt strange to be talking religion and the pharmacy profession with a sales rep, then it got even weirder in the evening. It was after dinner and I sat at the stone seats facing the main road. It was breezy and dimly lit. A good place to relax, contemplate… a young Caucasian man in formal wear and necktie sat beside me. I was expecting him to speak to me. I only knew it too well… he is a missionary for the Mormon religion (Church of Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ). As predicted, he asked, “How’s your day?”

After he knew I am a pharmacist, he even asked me about whether Roaccutane (oral isotretinoin) aggravates acne initially. I was a little dumb-founded but reacted quickly to ask him if he was on it. After all, admittedly… all I knew about Roaccutane is that is teratogenic, pregnancy Category X and it causes drying of lips and other mucous membranes…. Maybe the missionary was talking about acne fulminans? A variant form of acne which could be a side effect of Roaccutane… I don’t know. That is a rare side effect. Anyway, he soon talked about how he came from the United States and was in Singapore for 3 months… and that Mormon guys have to serve for 2 years as missionaries. If he was trying to evangelise to me, it must have been extremely subtle. Fortunately or unfortunately for him, I had to leave shortly after telling him about the Holy Trinity (which his faith does not believe)…

He asked for my name… and bid “Dr Andrew” farewell. In the States, pharmacists are PharmD graduates and hence have the title “Dr”. To meet a person who will spend 2 years doing street evangelism is incredible because in Singapore, we are just so “secular”. Sometimes, I feel that since society cannot judge a person based on sincerity, joy, satisfaction… so they use yardsticks like wealth, status, power and prestige. I think that is a very sad way of measuring achievements… and even sadder when so many of us are chasing after those… consciously or subconsciously.

If only that Mormon chap is a mainline Christian (eg. an Anglican)… hopefully, God will guide that nice chap to orthodox Christianity.

God Bless,

Andrew