Sharing by Dr Paul Carter MD

 

Sharing
by
Dr Paul Carter MD

The publishing of my new book coincided perfectly with a pandemic-induced cancelling of exactly the sort of groups which make book lunches so popular with authors. So, after some thought, I realised that if I wanted to sell a few copies of my latest opus, I would have to use the world wide web.

Not having been active on social media for some years, I did not have the faintest idea how to even start bringing my latest scribblings to the notice of the great unwashed. Realising that I needed some help, I went and sought the advice of Al, who had been a very useful go-to girl on a number of other issues before. Al came up trumps once more. She directed me to a completely delightful local lady, who has turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. My newest best friend has degrees in Facebook, WhatsApp, Linked-in, Dropbox, Messenger and Zoom. Okay, okay, I can hear you all saying, I’m good at all that stuff too, so why didn’t you chose me. The answer is that taking on my NBF was like buying something off the tele, and then also getting a bonus free set of steak knives. And that is because she also comes with degrees in economics and marketing, a masters in tax havens, an MBA and a doctorate in Public Relations. And she is funny. Not as funny as me, but quite funny nevertheless.

Anyway, the point I am getting to is that as soon as we started working together, we needed to share some of the files on my PC.

‘You better just check them first and make sure that there’s nothing in them that you wouldn’t want me to see,’ she said innocently as we were about to start.

Along the road of my life’s journey, there have a number of times when I have recognised that I was at a point which could only be described as pivotal. This was one of those moments. As I looked at her, I realised that here was absolutely nothing whatsoever in the files that I wouldn’t want her to see. Or a Royal Commission for that matter. As I gazed at her speechlessly, it suddenly came to me how little of my life I had spent kicking the sand out of my shoes, but how much of it I had spent away from the world with my head stuck in some book or other studying for an exam.

‘Well?’ she asked.

It was some time before I was able to answer her clearly. ‘In my next reincarnation,’ I replied, ‘I am going to spend much less time in the library and go to far more parties. I am going to have far fewer letters after my name, and the only files I’ll be prepared share with you will have to be heavily redacted.’