"The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny."
~ Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
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Like many others, I wanted to be a doctor from the first time I watched Doogie Howser, M.D. on TV years ago. I think almost all of us went into the medical field with romantic dreams of saving lives and changing the world one surgery at a time.Unfortunately, somewhere along the line medical school hit and all of the glamour and romanticism of our profession was thrown aside with thoughts of passing board exams, malpractice, and the myriad of other horrors that we are slapped in the face with in our quest to be the greatest doctor in the world. We are passed through the fraternal hazings of residency which essentially include being treated like crap for 3-5 years by the very people we fantasized about being one day.
What we are and what we wanted to be when we were little is so drastically different, despite the fact that we became doctors or nurses or whatever, just as we planned. Sure, some of us love our jobs and put our passion into what we do, but I'm convinced that most of us have completely forgotten to be the doctors we dreamt about.
A few months ago I picked up the novel 'Cutting for Stone' by Abraham Verghese looking for a simple reading break. What I found was something I needed much more - a reminder of who I want to be as a doctor.
Although Cutting for Stone was a work of fiction, Verghese described the human body and the practice of medicine so beautifully that I could feel myself participating in every surgery and could see myself as covered in the same blood that flooded the floors of the operating stage while Thomas Stones or Marion worked.
I won't attempt to summarize the book because my words won't do it justice but it reminded me of why I want to be a doctor and put the dreams back in my mind of changing the world with the life-saving service I provide whether I'm on the floor of a busy operating room or the quiet office of a private practice.
I highly recommend Cutting for Stone to anyone who needs a quiet reminder of why we do what we do.
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"Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?"
~ Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
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