Many years ago, (many), I had to escort a young man to a hospital to have a doctor examine him to determine, due to his bizarre behaviour, if he should be committed to a psychiatric unit for evaluation.

Clearly, in my eyes the fellow needed to go see an expert for a few days to see if he could get some help. Given that the male was acting irrationally and possibly a danger to the doctor, I stayed in the room.

The doctor starts questioning this fellow and I was following along with the process.

Then the doctor, in order to once again evaluate this person to determine if he should be committed asked the male, “What does this phrase mean to you; a bird in hand is worth two in the bush?”

Now, when I say this happened many years ago, I had probably less than three years’ service.

I passed an exam and went though a lengthy interview to get where I am and at that time I thought I had a good degree of intelligence.

This fellow looks really confused at this question and is thinking hard on what this means.

The guy about to be committed looks at me as if asking for some assistance. Me, I’m thinking that whereever they are taking him, it might have to have double occupancy.

I have no clue what the doctor is asking. I’ve never heard the phrase. So the doctor leaves the room and I go outside with him and I had the following conversation:

“Hey Doc, I don’t want to alarm you, and the fact is I carry a gun in public, but what’s with the birds?”

He explains. So I go back in the room to watch over this guy, thinking “I know a secret and I’m not going to tell.”

I do my best to not listen in anymore when there is an examination going on. Another close call.

Marko