The Straight and Narrow Path

Five minutes after I feel asleep last night, Chris barges into the room.

"Come look at the news!" he says.

I grumble incoherently (I get in a terrible mood when I'm woken up).

"There's an attending physician from (university where I did my internship last year) who got busted in a sex sting operation; he'd been soliciting a prostitute!"

Scandalous, but not enough to get me out of bed. "Find out the name!" I yell at him.

"Dr XYZ!" he reports back, "they're showing his face on TV!" "Oh my god!" I say. And then I couldn't go back to sleep, reminiscing about this attending. He'd been my attending for a few patients last year. Gruff personality, emotionless face, and not friendly at all. Who knew that he'd be interested in females and sex? I guess all men are interested in sex at a guttural level.

Truthfully, however, I felt a little guilty for being so intrigued by this scandal. I have known more than a few people through the years, people whom I've cared about, who had gotten themselves involved in scandal, and it is devastating. For example, I or other members of my family have been close to two different people who later went on to murder someone. One murdered his wife, the other murdered her husband. And I didn't even grow up in the ghetto; I grew up in sheltered, upper-middle class suburbia. But that was also the reason why the people I knew, and who got into trouble, attracted so much attention; they were white collar, high profile people. And one of them (not the murderer) was my father, who also was a physician, and who also drew media attention and lost so much after his scandal-- his career, our family life, and many friends (who probably weren't real friends to begin with).

However, that's all water under the bridge now, and it makes me all the more resolved to make my life with Chris a fresh start from all that happened in the past. A drama-free existence, a strong loving family (someday), and always walking the straight and narrow path.