There is not much I wouldn’t do to keep my father’s work in the public eye. His life of service to the chiropractic profession is nothing short of breath taking. At times over the past two years, I have wondered if I should just STOP!
His message to the world and to chiropractic is timeless, but is it time to let his work rest? I have spent countless hours over the past two years updating his work and saving most of it from being lost to outdated audio and video tapes. I have digitized everything so that it will be around for generations to come and I have attempted to combine it into programs like, “Sigafoose Weekly,” and “SigTalks Podcast,” but there has always seemed to be a part of me that says, “I can do more,” but at the same time I constantly run into people, including family members that say, OK, that is enough!
It is a difficult choice to make.
On one hand, I have learned more about my father and about chiropractic than I ever had in my 47 years prior to starting this endeavor, but at the same time I have seen the darker side of trying to keep a legends life work alive. There have been countless moments where I have been attacked and told that I am tarnishing my father’s image, by using updated marketing ideas to get his message out there. I was even told once that I should just give his work away and that he, my father, would be ashamed of me for selling his work on-line. The funny thing is, is that we have spent far more money on updating his work and saving it and trying to get it out there then we have brought in.
You see this has never been about getting rich or earning an income, it has been about continuing my father’s work, by using his words and thoughts to continue to make a difference in, not only our profession, but in the world as well.
I started this whole adventure, because I was bored. I was sitting at home doing nothing, while I was waiting to get my drivers license and my license to practice chiropractic back.
Really, that was it!
I was not doing this to keep my fathers work alive or to learn more about chiropractic. It was an endeavor entirely born out of BOREDOM! The problem with doing something out of boredom, is that sooner or later you’re going to start to learn something.
Somewhere along the way, I started to not only learn more about my father, but I started to learn more about chiropractic.
You see, being the son of Sigafoose, had more disadvantages, than it did advantages. As his son, I tended to close my ears and my mind, every time he opened his mouth. I also never questioned anything that he said, because well, he was SIGAFOOSE, and I was just Carey, his youngest son. I don’t know if any of you understand that, but I am sure there must be one or two of you out there that get this.
Over the past two years, I have started to find my own voice hidden somewhere in all of my father’s words. I have stopped being Carey, the youngest son of Dr. James M. Sigafoose and stared being, Dr. Carey N. Pabouet-Sigafoose, chiropractor, husband of Patrick, podcast host, speaker and writer.
“I really don’t know if I will continue on this path, it is time consuming and expensive and the pain often times is not worth the limited gratification,” is a thought that runs through my head on an almost daily basis. Then I remember what I have learned over the past two years and I realize that there is no amount of money in the world that could pay for the education I have received by studying my fathers works.
So to answer my own question, “Why The HELL Am I Doing This?”
Because, if I can learn to be a better chiropractor, friend, husband or person from a man who I barely knew and most of the time did not even like very much, I can only imagine how much someone else can be helped that is more willing and more open to hearing my fathers philosophy and words then I was.
You see, if I can stomach through all the emotional shit that I have that is attached to my father and come out on the other side a better person from studying his work, IMAGINE what the hell you could do.
Dr. Carey N. Pabouet-Sigafoose
