Heroes Not Zombies

One knows nothing save what one loves, and the deeper and more complete that knowledge, the stronger and livelier must be one’s love – indeed passion

Goethe

Love is fabled to be blind, but to me it seems that kindness is necessary to perception

Emerson

Both Goethe and Emerson agree…..we can’t know, maybe even can’t even perceive, unless we direct our attention in a loving, or kind manner. I found that was a foundational principle to medical practice. Unless you genuinely cared for the patient you never got to know them, never really understood them. I’m sure that’s why many patients would say after a good consultation that they had felt, not just heard, but seen, or even “felt” for the first time.

I do believe you can teach that to doctors, but I think it should be taught explicitly. We should be taught not just the importance of the “necessary distance” to see the whole picture and to be objective, but the importance of genuinely caring and engaging with the patient in a kind, even loving manner.

It’s the same in an ordinary day. When we pay loving attention to whatever we encounter, be that a flower, a bird, a person, a work of art, then we really perceive. When we drift carelessly through a day, we don’t perceive reality at all.

Love and kindness are important principles if we want to live a full, expansive, and satisfying life. It matters not just what we pay attention to but the manner in which we attend to it.