Does One Vote Really Matter?

“Does one vote really matter?” 

This morning, I surprised myself. I woke up thinking not about the election, but instead about a seminar I took in psych grad school. The professor was an excellent teacher, published articles, thriving clinical practice. My grad school cadre always looked forward to this class…except for one gigantic pain in the neck. “Mory” audited the seminar from another program, and his goal in life was to challenge the doctor at every turn. On this particular day, decades ago, our professor presented a case and asked us to formulate a treatment plan. Mory, as always, had another agenda.

“You don’t do research,” he declared, apropos of absolutely nothing.

“That’s true,” our professor nodded.

“I don’t know how you can justify that choice.”

“How do you figure?” she remained calm.

“Seeing patients, you’re only helping one at a time. Doing research can help thousands. One by one isn’t enough.”

The rest of us cringed, but the doctor remained unfazed.

“I know you’re a researcher, Mory, and that’s an important contribution. But one by one is good enough for God. So it’s good enough for me.”

Does one vote really matter? Yeah, one vote really matters. One by one.

 I guess I woke up thinking about the election after all. 

#Vote

*All identifying information in this post has been changed.