I am taking up writing this blog after a long time….I can’t give any excuses, though. I did not practice what I preached – consistency. Too bad. However, as with many other things, it is important not to let failures dominate and dictate terms, so I am determined to start today to write this blog regularly. It helps that I am down with a terrible fever and laryngitis and just recovering my voice- I am off clinical work for the last few days, so I have time on my hands, which is indeed a rare commodity.
During a decade-long career in general surgery, I have often come to the conclusion that life is not fair at all. I have, with my own hands, operated on patients who do not deserve to be shot at and suffer serious injuries, to have their limbs mangled and apmutated due to land mines, or to lose their lives due to diseases that no one knows or understands or due to selfish and reckless acts by other fellows in human society. I have seen kids who lose parents and get orphaned- I clearly recall the young people who died of a variety of illnesses, when they were just starting to blossom and enjoy life. No one seems to be immune to the unfairness of life – It is just how it is…..
As medical professionals and Surgeons, we have mastered the art of detaching ourselves from the sad reality and moving on…..We can’t dwell on the patient who lost their limbs or died – our services are needed for the next patient who is gasping for breath or fighting for life. The show must go on at all costs. Therefore, we put on a brave face and the mask of “no emotion” and carry on….. A lesson we all learn very early in our careers is that we can’t win all battles. Most of the time, we are fighting a losing battle.
That’s all and good for the professional aspects of medical and surgical lives, but how about real life?
The events that happened or are happening over this weekend have really got me thinking of this also. I notice that the same rules apply to real life, too. People behave in bizarre ways that we can’t predict or analyse. There is no logic or reasoning at times. At times, you are left wandering – How on earth did they come up with the decisions they have? Some things are obvious, but people decide to ignore them and make decisions based on surmise and conjecture….Are they correct decisions, based on past experience? They are probably not, but then again, we can’t predict the future, so only time will tell…..
So, how should we circumvent this irrationality of human decision-making? How do we avoid the heartbreak that comes with this? I can only turn to Buddhist philosophy here – Arguably, Buddaah was the greatest philosopher known to human civilisation- He preached a philosophy, not a religion……
In simplistic terms, Buddha said, “Give all to everything you do but expect nothing in return…..Absolutely Nothing”. Expect nothing from people you help, people you serve…..Be neutral and detached. That way, you won’t be guaranteed you will get what you deserve, but you have the guarantee that you will not have resentments. In other words, you can’t control what other people say or do and how it affects you, but you can control your reaction to that and your inner peace of mind. In Buddha’s own words, ‘ One who conquers one’s own mind will conquer the world.”
So in this coming week, try to do good and serve people…. but expect nothing in return, Try to conquer our minds to achieve inner peace and tranquility…..Life is neither fair nor predictable, and people make irrational decisions. At times, we can do nothing about it, other than conquer our minds and reactions to these
Safe surgery and Hope to see you soon!
LBS
Surgery-the good bad and ugly 