Doctor or Clown? How about both?

I can put another “celebrity” sighting notch in my belt for I got to listen to Patch Adams today. Yes this was for an assignment in Palm Springs.
Yes that Patch Adams. The one portrayed by Robin Williams in that less than critically revered film fittingly titled “Patch Adams.” For those of you who are not Robin Williams fans (he’s the main reason to see the film), Dr. Patch is a rogue physician who believes that conventional medicine is one big joke.
So instead of joining the circus that is the American health care system, he dons clown clothes, big shoes and a red nose and goes to other countries where he tries to make the sick and dying laugh.
I’ve never seen the film, but I remember seeing a reviewer say that the movie is just unbelievable because of the Patch character’s outrageous behavior. Today, during Dr. Patch’s speech, he scoffed at how tame the film was.
“They toned it down a lot. The noodle bath you see in the movie is definitely toned down compared to what we did,” he told a crowd of sports medicine teachers and students.
Noodle bath?
For much of the hour-plus, he was on. Patch claimed the title social activist, provocateur, geek and clown. He told us he despised capitalism. He hated HMO’s and thought people should embrace the thought of caring for an elderly loved one and felt all of us should embrace the ill just as they are, even if they suffer from a violence inducing mental illness.
This same man, however, told us he was in discussions for Patch Adams II, believed that it was OK, that he be given that special final cocktail should he ever lose faculties and insisted that depression was not a mental illness.
He showed videos of himself clowning with children in other countries. One of them, a young Russian boy, was expected to die within weeks. He told stories of children who are molested or abused.
I kept thinking, “He is doing good, he is making a difference.” I wanted to like him. But then I really couldn’t. There was something disingenuous about him. I desperately wanted him to be legitimate in heart and in action but there was something almost arrogant about him.
Maybe there were a few too many contradictions about him. I don’t know. What I do know is that these children would trade in the goddamned red nose and handful of chuckles for the arms of a loving parent. I’m sure they would trade it in for a minute of security or the chance to feel confident, normal, safe.
It’s nice that Patch gives them a laugh. I guess it’s better than nothing.