If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
[...]
But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
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people religious about health, religious about cleanliness - what does 'being religious' mean? adhering stringently to a set of actions and traditions - believing that rituals can save you - doing something obsessively in the belief that it isn't futile
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When I was in fourth year of medical school a consultant stopped ward round and asked us, 'who is the most important person in the hospital?' We stared back at him blankly. "Is it Mr Najar? (referring to himself) (I've forgotten the consultant's name but he was almost certainly Indian) Is it the hospital administrator?" He gave us a wide and benign grin. "No, it's this person right here," gesturing to the lady who nobody had noticed before then, rendered inconspicuous by her dark green cleaner's uniform. She looked back at him and gave a bashful smile, unused to the attention. Mr Najar smiled back warmly at her. "How are you today?" "Fine, thank you." He turned back to face us. Our faces were so blank you could draw on them.
"If she isn't here, then the ward will be dirty. If the ward is dirty then patients will get sick. If this person doesn't do her job, then all our work here is meaningless. Do you understand?" Our heads nodded dutifully. "That's why I always say hello, good morning. Isn't it much nicer when people say good morning to each other? Good morning Rita!" A passing secretary beamed at him without breaking her stride. "Good morning Mr. Najar." The cleaner loitered in the background with her hands politely clasped behind her back, unsure if she was obliged to stay for the rest of the sermon.
I had forgotten about Mr Najar until now. I don't remember what happened before or what came after on ward round. It's lost in the sea of trivial mornings and medical school routine. I know now, however, with almost 100% certainty that none of us had understood the point he was trying to make. We just chalked it up to another eccentric consultant's production - the fanfare and palaver that performers feel compelled to deliver for a captive audience (who are themselves rarely desirous of it).
Last Thursday, as the ward round was entering the last bay, a tall, tanned Pakistani gentleman clad in a deep blue jumpsuit paused his mopping and stepped aside deftly, holding the door to allow the group through. Neither the registrar, who led the ward round, nor the consultant, who followed second, nor the core trainee, who hurriedly trailed after them, uttered a word of thanks.
Later that day, a nurse and a doctor were in the doctor's office. He was in the middle of writing up a patient's discharge letter. She was being strangely polite. She was a staff nurse, qualified a year ago, but it was her first time being in charge of the ward. It was subtle, but you could tell she felt slightly out of her depth - that the weight of responsibility had caught her a little off balance. "I'm sorry to keep barging in - you lot must hate it, us pecking at you all the time for this and that."
The doctor scratched his head and looked at his screen. "I don't think it's as bad as when you ask us to do something and we just look blankly back at you like... umm. I don't know how to do that--"
"-- I know and we're like, please don't look at us! We don't know what to do either!" They looked at each other and laughed, a genuine expression of relief, the sound of tension dissipating.
The doctor nodded amicably and returned his attention to the screen but continued, "So if it's something we can help with then... you know, it goes both ways doesn't it? At the end of the day, we're all on the same team."
And as they talked, you could sort of tell that the nurse and the doctor were listening to each other now, the way sometimes a member of the human race listens to another.
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