December 6, 2019

by drplasticpicker

I had great fun being interviewed by our local paper the PB Monthly. Savannah Duffy, the journalist, phone interviewed me twice and we exchanged several emails. I got to tell our nursing staff and my clinic friends in great fun, “I can’t go to lunch because I have an interivew this afternoon.” She even asked to record the interivew and I was so intrigued that she asked my permission! But in this whole plastic picking and blogging adventure, this PB Monthly interview was a high point and will give me energy to keep on going!

This blog still remains semi-anonymous, but they published my picture and name and it’s online. I can honestly say, I was hesitant about having my name out and picture out there. Everyone I know knows it’s me, but the whole point is this it is about my avatar that anyone can adopt. Like the recent animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” there are multiple kinds of Spider-Mans. And now that I think about it, some other pediatrician could take over this blog and become the next Dr. Plastic Picker and it would still be true to it’s mission. Unless you analyzed our writing style, how would you know it was really still me? But in the end Savannah Duffy thought it would be helpful if I had more credibility by putting some of my professional accomplishments, my hoity toity professional pedigree and my picture. If it gets more people to pick up plastic, why not?

I agreed assuming this publicity made a difference in our readership. Drplasticpicker is also on instagram and twitter and facebook, but mostly instagram. Instagram has been great fun, and we are getting more referrals from the site. But mostly it’s me following like-minded litter-pickers and ocean pollution cleaners. We post pictures of the trash we find and mutually encourage each other. The last 2 days I haven’t really been able to get a good jog/walk or plastic picking session in. But when I don’t get a chance, I look on instagram at pictures of my litter picking friends who are oddly enough mostly German. I get great satisfaction seeing their daily hauls. One friend from Scotland who also has a little black dog, gets sometimes 3 large garbage bagfuls a day! I think the rest of my 80 followers are my patients. Thanks guys! At least you know where I am when you can’t get through to me on the patient portal.

That morning after the PB Monthly story broke, I headed out for my morning stroll and went to the beach. I half expected someone to say, “Hey, that’s Dr. Plastic Picker!” But friends, it was like crickets. It was eerily similar to when I achieved my biggest professional accommplishment which is being named into my current middle management position. I’m guilty of being as narcissistic like most physicians, but now I realize how dangerous that kind of adulation is. The attention I was seeking out when I started middle management, the attention some physicians seek by catering to their patients or gunning for high patient satisfaction scores, is like a drug or like candy. It’s too sweet, and not good for you.

In truth reaching this middle-aged wisdom has taught me that I want the right kind of attention. My new instagram followers or the increasing page views of the blog on Google Analytics are like candy. I want attention that is like a vegetable, tons of fiber and that will not spike up my blood sugar but keep it steady. Like a vegetable, I want attention that will keep me full and satisfied and not make me seek the next sweet thing to eat. That is the beauty of vegetables and the beauty of drplasticpicker.

You are my vegetables dear readers, the readers that I already know. I want your attention. When PB Monthly published it’s piece on this blog, I began texting all of my friends and letting them know about the story. A sampling below of your responses:

1. Parent Friends: “Dr. PP for the WIN!!!” “I am impressed.” “That’s a great idea! Inspire the younger PPs. This should be the norm, not the exception.” “Loved the article on you!! What a nice story. Heart emoji x 3.”
2. Middle Management Friends: “Wow! Super duper! Will u still talk to us now?” and my old boss “What a great article! Great work! Very happy for you. Best regards.” “Aww, how cute is your daughter. You are going viral for sure!”
3. Clinic MD Friends: “That’s awesome!!!” “Wow! Congrats! I’m so proud of you!” “That’s great! I liked the article.” Lots of thumbs up emojis and heart emojis.
4. My family: “I’m proud of you. Going to send this to everyone.” My father sent me 3 hand clap emojis. He is drplasticpicker’s biggest fan!

And one of the young pediatricians I mentor and seemingly manage https://drplasticpicker.com/drplasticpickers-advice-to-my-teenage-patients-and-young-physicians-pick-the-unconventional-path/, sent me a photo of the layout and said she was so happy to see her supervisor setting a good example. And that my friends is why I do this. I’m not sure how I got so lucky to be in the position I am in, to be able to recruit, supervise and help manage an amazing department. Even though I know I’m a bit self-centered and so are you, but we have such an outsized influence on society https://drplasticpicker.com/pediatricians-the-hand-that-rocks-the-cradle-rules-the-world/. I seek to be your vegetable, a fiber-filled moral influence that keeps your emotions and blood sugar steady and not seeking more attention. And I think I should go pick up ocean plastic pollution, and that you, my-upper-middle-class-dual-income-1%-physician friends and other similar friends, should go pick up ocean plastic pollution too. Or at the least use less single-use plastics. Know this, I’m watching you at our departmental meetings. LOL, and keeping it fun but semi-creepy – your friend DRPLASTICPICKER!!! You can call me out too, when you see me with that plastic spoon I was eating my oatmeal yestserday. A friend got tired of watching me eating my oatmeal with the reused plastic knife and gave me the spoon.