Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we are going to discuss how Paternalism fails runners.

During a sermon one Sunday morning in 1896 in Dayton, Ohio, Bishop Milton Wright said, “If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings!”

Lucky for us, his sons didn't listen. Had Wilbur and Orville actually taken their father’s admonitions to heart, it would certainly take us a lot longer to get from San Francisco to New York.

As a father myself I cannot believe the good bishop was hoping to crush his children's dreams. I can only assume he wanted to protect his boys. He wanted to protect them from what, to him, seemed to be a foolish idea of propelling themselves through the sky. He didn't want them to die in the process of seeking an adventure.

In retrospect, it is clear Bishop Wright had the wrong idea. His kids wanted to fly. And so they did. The doctor wants to protect runners from further injury. It's part of the Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm.” It's part of what they have sworn to do. But doctors should also encourage you to fly. They should look for new ways to get you from point A to point B. They shouldn't look at the old methods of healing and recovery and think it's enough for an injured runner.

Nobody wants to ride a donkey from San Francisco to New York. It's the doctor's job to help you look to the sky. It's the doctor's job to help you fly.