2013 medconference … october 18-20
Following the Patient: The Key to Medical Care
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the gift of a mother’s face …
One day, Mary, a friend of mine, interviewed a woman who had survived a prolonged, traumatic ordeal. After listening to her terrible story, she asked the woman what she desired. “Nothing,” came the response. But Mary could not believe it, and insisted: “What is your greatest desire?” And the woman answered, “Just to die.” Mary …
we shall not cease from exploration …
And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. A masterpiece can be said to be a work with the capacity to outlast its time and speak to cultures vastly different from its own; to transcend its time and place and inspire …
moved for the destiny of the other …
I am a nurse, and this week I met a fifty year-old lady, who was admitted to my ward because she had muscular dystrophy which had caused her to become paralyzed and unable to breathe. Already the day she was admitted, she had grabbed my arm and had told me: “Let me die!”. The other …
the knowledge of faith becomes the knowledge of reality …
… read about the witness of Canadian teenagers before the “Dying with Dignity” commission and learn why Canadian journalist Laureen Pindera said “these people speak not simply about what treatment to give their patients, but about how they accompany them in their journey of suffering. They speak about how to love them.”
to marvel in the presence of the other …
Listening … is the capacity to be present before the other, leaving him all the space he needs to manifest himself. The silence of the listener is an offered, given silence. Listening is a kind of creation, because in listening to someone we allow him to be himself, we collaborate in the revelation of who …
Mahler puts things into perspective …
… Wieseltier on ‘big data’ … “The mathematization of subjectivity will founder upon the resplendent fact that we are ambiguous beings. We frequently have mixed feelings, and are divided against ourselves. We use different words to communicate similar thoughts, but those words are not synonyms. Though we dream of exactitude and transparency, our meanings are …
beauty will save the world …
… Liz Lev on Benedict XVI on beauty and the arts. Greg Wolfe, Brian Zahnd, Stratford Caldecott take up similar themes. Ego sum … William Congdon.
amour … traces of beauty …
The 2012 French film Amour is a powerful, realistic portrayal of one spouse’s care and love for the other in the twilight of their lives … in disability and decline … nearing death. Georges is an attentive and loving caregiver to his wife Anne, declining in her ability to care for herself as she suffers …
trying to imagine how things should be …
… annihilates experience …