[May 2001 journal entry]
My daughters have often asked me how they should explain to others my work with medical students, residents, academic physicians, and practicing physicians. Over the years, I have offered them a variety of metaphors (e.g., the prompter in theatre, the mudder in interior wall construction, the leaven in baking, . . .). A few days ago, Morgan asked, “Dad, how should I answer when my friends ask -- ‘Morgan, what does your dad do?’” A new metaphor came to mind. I responded, “Just tell them I am an irrigation ditch.” By the end of our conversation about this metaphor, she seemed to understand. Since the early 1980s, I have been privileged to work closely with medical students, residents, academic physicians, and practicing physicians who remain resolved to be humane toward their patients and to exercise a strong social conscience in the practice of medicine. Their resolve places them in the barren regions of the medical education and medical practice environments.
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Reflections on the Search for a Very Healthy Center
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2009
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December
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- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #178
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #177
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #176
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #175
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #174
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #173
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #172
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #171
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #170
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #169
- A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #168
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #92
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #91
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #90
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #89
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #88
- The ‘scrapheap’ Job -- #87
- Fragment -- #220
- Fragment -- #219
- Fragment -- #218
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- ‘the ethical dimensions of patient care’ -- #50
- ‘the ethical dimensions of patient care’ -- #49
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About the Title of This Blog
[December 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay for his parents, his siblings (and their children), his closest friend (Eberhard Bethge), and his fellow covert resisters imbedded in the Abwehr. I have been privileged to have the assistance of Renate Bethge -- Eberhard’s wife and Dietrich’s favored niece by his older sister Ursala -- as I revised and finalized my translation. Words/phrases in parentheses offer additional nuances, add implied ideas, or indicate alternative translations. ]
The View from Below
"It remains an experience of unparalleled (incomparable) value that we have learned to see for once the great events of world history from below – through the perspective of the barred (put out, cut out, blocked), the suspects, the badly treated, the powerless, the oppressed (restrained), the scoffed (derided, mocked), in short the perspective of those who suffer. (It is) only in this time when neither bitterness nor envy (jealousy) has cauterized (corroded, gnawed away) the heart that we see with new eyes great and small, fortunate and unfortunate, strong and weak; that our view of greatness, humaneness, justice, and compassion has become clearer, more free, more incorruptible (not subject to bribes); indeed, (that we see) that personal suffering is a more suitable (qualified) key (code, cipher), a more fruitful principle, than is personal good fortune for exploring the world by observation and action. It follows that this perspective from below will not be the partisan claim of those forever discontent, but that we are just in all life’s dimensions out of a higher contentment that is grounded properly beyond ‘from below’ and ‘from above’. And so it is affirmed." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Ten Years Later"