Like ...

Ever think about what salvation looks, smells or feels like? That was one assignment at a workshop I attended over the past three days. My image of salvation is a cold glass of iced tea on the hottest of summer days. Having just finished mowing the lawn and standing sweat soaked under the shade of a large oak tree, I am unexpectedly handed a glass that is all beaded up with cold moisture. After taking that first big gulp of refreshing liquid I touch the chilly glass to my forehead. There is the faint aroma of mint mixed with the taste of lemon along with a delightful sweetness in the back of my throat. Swallowing, my parched body demands that I move the cool of the glass from my forehead back to my lips as my tongue begs for more.

Things that unite

"This 37 year old Asian American female accountant who is a unmarried mother of two ..." And so it begins, the medical history where I record answers to all of the questions I have ask about age, race, occupation, sexual orientation, number of sexual partners, level of exercise, diet, allergies, recent travel history, family history, social history, good habits and bad. This is what a physician does, ask questions and listen carefully to the answers.

Often there is more information than I need. Occasionally I worry that some of this information will prejudice my judgement. In an effort to prevent such bias I try to remember what I hold in common with my patients. All of us wish to love and to be loved. We all become hungry when we are not fed, tired when we are over worked, cold when we are exposed without adequate protection. All of us have skin. Cut it, regardless of color, and we all bleed. Oh yes, and we all get lonely. This seems to be the case now more than ever before.

On this day, the anniversary of a cataclysmic event in history, when some would separate us in to countries, religions, cultures, and generations, may we all remember the above. It is not trite to say for the sake of peace "many more things unite us than divide."

Rest, part II

"If it were easy then anybody could be a doctor." Those words resonate in my mind daily even though it has been thirty years since I heard them for the first time. My neuroanatomy professor made this pronouncement after each assignment given. The neuroanatomy course was one of the most demanding of the basic sciences, the last lecture course of the first year of medical school. We never saw the professor during the lectures. The course was on closed circuit TV. His hands, the pro sections of the brain and spinal column and diagrams were all that we ever saw. His voice was like the voice of God. Meeting him I was surprised he appeared so ordinary.

I also recall the words of a colleague, a favorite endocrinologist, when I was begging him to see a patient sooner than his office schedule would allow. "I cannot create time!" he declared.

No, humans cannot create time. The Divine did, ordering it in such a way, with light and dark, winter, spring, summer and fall to give natural periods of rest. In our attempt to be like gods we have discovered electricity and harnessed it into a nonstop flow of activities, ideas and information.

So what could be more powerful than turning off the lights, unplug the appliances, even the oven, for a few hours a week? Think of it as conservation. The energy you save may be more than just your own.

Yes, if it were easy anyone would do it. Just like the words of my neuroanatomy professor pushing me to study, this is a challenge to arrange my week in such a way that there is time for a period of rest or Sabbath.