Remember the line from Conan? I don’t think my quote is exact, but it was something like this: ‘Conan, what is good in life?’ ‘To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, to hear the lamentation of their women…’ OK, Conan may not be the best role model. But it was a very memorable line!
What is good in life? Tough question, with lots of answers. But I know one good thing. The relationship I have with my wife and children. I enjoy medicine, but it’s just what supports my family. They are my true calling, as I said in the intro to my book ‘Cats Don’t Hike’.
I was reading to them tonight, listening to my daughter, so proud of her reading ability, reading ‘Ten Apples Up on Top.’ I was reading ‘The White Stag’ to the boys, which is the story of Attila and the Huns. We laughed and talked, after I had helped them get ready for bed. These are the best times. These are the reasons to be.
A while back, one of my boys said, ‘I want to be a scientist. But I don’t want to work too much because I want to stay home with my kids.’ I was so proud.
That is what’s good in life. Connection and love. Nothing in medicine trumps it. And it’s good to remember, we practice not because medicine is an end in itself, but so that other families and individuals can go on living well and long, and enjoying their own connections, their own laughter and their own bedtime stories.
“And it’s good to remember, we practice not because medicine is an end in itself, but so that other families and individuals can go on living well and long, and enjoying their own connections, their own laughter and their own bedtime stories.”
And we patients thank you for doing just that!
Peggy
17 years ago
Very grateful for your blogging. Also, thanks for mentioning the title of your book….just now ordered it.
Luke
17 years ago
All too often, life absolutely overwhelms everything that is important to us. As a medical student, I wake up with the feeling of self-loathing when I realize that I am being forced to make the sacrifice of my family and ultimately my life for my training as a physician. It makes me wonder whether all of this is ultimately worth it.
Thank you for your short glimpses of perspective. They give me hope that there is room to be a human as well as a physician.
I am only commenting to make you know of the incredible discovery my wife’s princess went through checking yuor web blog. She even learned too many pieces, which include what it is like to have a marvelous coaching mood to let other folks really easily thoroughly grasp specified very confusing matters. You really exceeded our own expectations. Many thanks for producing such effective, safe, revealing and also easy tips about your topic to Janet.
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“And it’s good to remember, we practice not because medicine is an end in itself, but so that other families and individuals can go on living well and long, and enjoying their own connections, their own laughter and their own bedtime stories.”
And we patients thank you for doing just that!
Very grateful for your blogging. Also, thanks for mentioning the title of your book….just now ordered it.
All too often, life absolutely overwhelms everything that is important to us. As a medical student, I wake up with the feeling of self-loathing when I realize that I am being forced to make the sacrifice of my family and ultimately my life for my training as a physician. It makes me wonder whether all of this is ultimately worth it.
Thank you for your short glimpses of perspective. They give me hope that there is room to be a human as well as a physician.
I am only commenting to make you know of the incredible discovery my wife’s princess went through checking yuor web blog. She even learned too many pieces, which include what it is like to have a marvelous coaching mood to let other folks really easily thoroughly grasp specified very confusing matters. You really exceeded our own expectations. Many thanks for producing such effective, safe, revealing and also easy tips about your topic to Janet.
Smart stuff, I look forward to reading more.