Isn’t this a beautiful window? Some windows are best for looking out through, whilst others are mainly for letting light in, but I really like a window like this one which surpasses any mundane utility.
It’s beautiful to look at. I don’t know what it’s like to look through or what this frame does to the light as it pours into the building but it certainly fires up my imagination.
What strikes me most about this is how the window has become multiple instead of single, and that reminds me that our individual experience of reality is multiple, made up of an infinite number of complex flows of energy and information. How our multiple experience of reality is created by the web of relationships we establish with the world.
And how our collective experience of reality expands this complexity, this multiplicity, to an unimaginable level.
None of us has the final understanding of anything. Knowing and truth is always a work in process, never complete, but constantly moving towards something more whole, something more nuanced, something more coherent.
Time and again, in consultation after consultation, I found myself learning something new, something significant, about this patient (and often about myself!). One thing I learned from a career in Medicine was there was always more to learn, always more to discover and that understanding was a never completed process. That’s one of the reasons why I appreciated and valued continuity of care so much.
Over time, through multiple experiences, and consistent engagement, I’d get to know a person better – and that was at the heart of good diagnosis and care.
Multiplicity is a concept and a phenomenon. I delight in it. It shows me uniqueness, keeps me alert to change and reminds me to be humble in my conclusions and perspectives.
Heroes Not Zombies 
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