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Future Planning for MPS and the Questionable History of the Crystal Ball
One of the great things about Google is the capacity it provides to quickly research virtually any topic. Of course the down side is the potential inaccuracy of content, depending on the source. In our wireless enabled house, laptops and smart phones enable instant knowledge acquisition on anything. Although we have a rule that restricts electronic consultation at the dinner table, in all truth my family and I have been able to settle many disputes with these devices. Sometimes determining the answer is a conversation ender, sometimes the answer is a stimulus of a whole different train of conversation. That is the power and peril of contemporary access to so much information.
My 6th grade daughter maintains that most sites including Wikipedia are not to be trusted and cannot be used to do homework, especially if you want to get a good grade. (Kudos to the faculty at Glenwood Middle School for that one.) My son however, having just completed his first year of college, espouses a different opinion. His position on Wikipedia and other internet sources is much more relative. While he agrees that much web content cannot be referenced as a definitive source, in certain circumstances, such as making a minor point at 11:30 pm with a paper submission deadline of midnight, in his opinion, consulting with a website or Wiki entry that is more-likely-accurate-than-not might be worth the risk.
So begins the process of acquiring information about the quintessential forecasting device, the crystal ball. According to www.paranormal-nyc.com, accessed on 6-13-2010, use of a crystal ball dates back to sorcerers, and medieval Europe in the period 500 to 1500. Later in this impressive and dramatically presented webpage with a black background and white lettering that looks like the Microsoft Word font called Algerian, there is reference to ancient Druid cultures consulting with crystal balls, which is earlier in time by about 2500 years. Oops. The website looks serious, but is it credible? On to the Wikipedia site (under “Crystal Ball” accessed 6-13-2010) that provides information in a more mundane but academic looking white background with simple black lettering. According to the Wiki entry, dating to as far back as 2000 BCE, Druid cultures consulted with crystals in pursuit of the truth in a variety of areas including the future. The reference for this entry is an unnamed author’s memory of a mass marketing product on the occult which was published sometime in the 1970’s. (Not exactly Wiki’s finest hour for a reference.) Between these two sites, the time period that humans have consulted with actual crystal balls regarding their futures may not be able to be definitively resolved. It is probably safe to say that crystals have been considered to have supernatural capacity for thousands of years, and maybe the crystal ball itself (which was, as both sites agree, usually made from the mineral beryl) was not able to be refined into a smooth clear ball until the medieval period. Throughout this timeframe, in legend and in reality, individuals of power and would-be power mongers have looked for sources of reliable information from the past and present that would give insight into the future. Sometimes they have consulted with crystal balls.
What does this discussion of the acquisition of information about crystal balls have to do with the MPS? In short, we are thinking about our future. We want to understand our future possibilities as a professional organization. What do we invest our time and treasure in to assure that MPS provides value to Maryland and Maryland psychiatrists. We know we want to engage our membership so that the organization provides opportunities for a wide variety of meaningful participation and representation. We also know that we want to do our best to assure the long range fiscal sustainability of the MPS. We think that information acquisition for and about psychiatrists in Maryland is part of the answer. We hope we can assemble some of our members over the coming months to help us focus on specific ways that we can strengthen the short term and longer term role of MPS in the lives of psychiatrists in Maryland. Fortunately we have a tradition and good foundation to build on. This is not the first time in the 60 year history of MPS that members have seriously thought about the role and purpose of MPS in the professional lives of our members. MPS has one of the lowest drop rates of any district branch in the US, (thank you Dr. Waddington and Membership Committee).
If you are interested in helping us thinking about our future, please leave your name with Meagan Floyd at the MPS offices. Thank you….
Anita S. Everett, M.D.
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