Wednesday, April 8, 2009
and life lessons from Dr. Quinn. you know, that family friendly show featuring a female doctor post civil war. add some orphans and a buckskin clad mountain man, and you have the makings of an hour of goodliness.
the town is filled with interesting characters, all who seemingly sit around with nothing to do until there's a crisis. there's jake, who is a barber, and hank who runs the saloon with myra, the whore. horace runs the post office, and is madly in love with myra, the whore. loren runs the general store with miss dorothy, whom loren has the hots for. miss dorothy runs the gazette. the reverend is just what you would assume him to be, a man of the cloth.
the main girl, dr mike, is a doctor from boston who came west to help the people of colorado springs. mike winds up with three kids when her friend passes away. then there's sully, a man that has many layers to his soul. he let's dr. mike stay in his lean-to because he no longer needs it for his dead wife and child.
every episode features a medical emergency and a personal crisis for dr. mike or a member of her family. both situations intertwine around each other. what gets me is that the moment somebody rushes into town shouting "help" or "dr. mike!", the townspeople leave whatever they are doing and rush to help.
thats it, no questions asked, they just leap up and away they go. no excuses, no shortstopping, no "i gotta do this first...". their reaction is immediate. nothing could be more important than helping in a time of trial. i think of the times someone has asked for my help with something, and i've blown them off, or i took my time helping. maybe it's because i don't think anybody's crisis could be as bad as my own. to just jump when someone says "help", i think that is pretty cool...
props to you, citizens of colorado springs, fiction though you may be.
