Doctors Of The Soul
“The purpose of a doctor or any human in general should not be to simply delay the death of the patient, but to increase the person's quality of life.
This week I watched the movie Patch Adams for the second time. I saw it first years ago, but decided to watch it again as a suggestion from a good friend. I watched this time with new eyes and with more interest, as I have recently been exposed to the american medical system for the first time in my life.
Last week I went to a hospital to accompany a friend to get checked for a “condition”. I got to live first hand the coldness on which two doctors treated my patient friend; I felt she was treated as an object with a malfunction. It was like being in front of machines dealing with a machine; as if there was no person inside the body that the doctor was checking. The experience was overall disturbing.
Even though I can see how facts are facts and they have no feelings, the people that experience the “facts” of an ailment, do have feelings. And maybe physical ailments have something to do with how people experience and feel in their lives.
Of course I don't think that because I had this experience, it means that all doctors in the US are the same. I actually have a good friend who is very caring, humane and who also is an american doctor. But I do believe I got a taste of what the system is like.
Back to the movie: I don’t know how true the movie is to the real character on which the movie is based upon (Patch “Hunter” Adams), but wether it is or it is not, I believe the movie sends a very powerful message. For those who have not seen it, I suggest you watch it before you continue reading; I don’t want to spoil it for you .
The movie begins with an individual with suicidal tendencies who self commits to a Mental Hospital. In there, he meets other “crazy patients”. First, he was annoyed with them, then he wanted to get to know them, and finally he wanted to help them. To his surprise he discovered that in helping them he found a new sense to his life, his purpose.
He chose to dedicated himself to help people as a doctor, but not only through normal medicine methods but also through happiness; through truly caring for people, not only their decease. What a simple but powerful concept!
He saw that most people that came with a physical decease were not happy; they didn’t like their jobs, their marriage or their life. Wouldn’t it make sense that they would be sick if they had that kind of life?
The methods he applied to help people smile or even laugh were humor, and a type of shock therapy through doing things that the patients would never expect. In doing so he would shake them out of their misery to laugh, to smile, even in the face of death.
What's wrong with death sir? What are we so mortally afraid of? Why can't we treat death with a certain amount of humanity and dignity, and decency, and God forbid, maybe even humor. Death is not the enemy gentlemen. If we're going to fight a disease, let's fight one of the most terrible diseases of all, indifference.
Patch Adams “Movie”
How true I believe this quote is. In my life I have met thousands of people and I see that most the people I’ve encountered lack passion, lack self love; most are looking for something to make themselves feel better without knowing how to do so; some of them give up in their attempt and when they do, apathy and indifference become their religion.
Once people become indifferent, whatever happens in the world or in their lives makes no difference; good and bad become equals; an act of love or an act of hate become similar. Indifference an apathy may very well be some of the the worst illnesses the human race faces. Why? Because nothings matters; because once someone steps into their dark hole, it is difficult to get them out.
But is it possible to get out of apathy and indifference?
I believe so.
How?
Well, imagine you are indifferent, imagine you are apathetic. Now imagine you have a smiling baby in front of you. Imagine this little baby caressing your face with his little hand. imagine he is hugging you and kissing you while you try to be indifferent, could you? It would be challenging.
Now imagine this little baby taking your hand as he’s learning to walk, would you take your hand away? Would you not want to help him? Maybe you would not want to at first (to protect apathy) but if you don’t give in to the impulse, you may be taken by the baby’s innocence, and you may want to helping him.
In helping another we help ourselves as we stop focusing on our self indulgent misery. When we do so, we look at our problems with new eyes, they become less relevant, not so big. In trying to understand another person we understand ourselves better and in trying to connect with another human we connect with our own humanity.
Isn’t this great!
I am not saying that life is easy, often it is not, but I do find that living becomes easier when we live it with humor, with laughter, with joy. We may encounter death, and that can be sad, but we may also encounter births and new beginnings. We may lose friends but we can always start developing new ones. We may encounter deceit, but we can always meet it with faith, faith in the good nature of our souls, not matter how corrupted we may become.
It is easy to loose hope when we see no solutions to our problems; but in losing hope we make our problems bigger, as we stop trying to improve. A good thing we can do when we are lonely, discouraged and depressed, is to stand up and make a decision: “I will engage with my life as a comedian would face his own death, with laugher and smiles”.
In the act of serving others we serve ourselves.
If we truly want to help another we need to connect to who they are, who they were, and who they want to be; we need to know their struggles and joys. When we do all of these we begin to love. Isn’t this amazing! Most people are looking to be loved, but they don’t see that in loving others they can find the love that they seek. In other words: In loving others we lose our need of love; in loving others we may find a never ending well of love coming from us.
Could we smile then? Could we smile once we have found that the love we were seeking was in us and always available? Could we find more compassion for ourselves in understanding and becoming aware of another’s problems?
What do you think it would be like if every time we want to complain about how difficult our life is, we seek people that have worst problems than ours and we try to help them?
Try it! But be careful, you may find a cure to an illness that some don’t want to get rid off. But why? Why? Because misery can become an attachment, and one of the worst. To a miserable person joy may be seen as the enemy; for a joyful person a miserable one, is just a confused and lost soul on the way to finding themselves.
So, what if we apply joy, love and the act of assisting others as cures to our indifference?
But what if we are so in darkness that we don’t see the light? (Some may ask).
Then we need look for a hand, a hand to grab on until we can walk on our own. We could use another’s hope, vision and positivism as the injections we need, until we are healthy and strong.
But what if it does’t work? (Another person may say).
Well, it really doesn’t matter, as in the act of being opened to help we become humble. And in humbleness we open the way to become better.
The most revolutionary act one can commit in our world is to be happy.
Patch Adams
Patch Adams is a hero of mine. At least the character that I saw being portrayed in the movie. He met many challenges in his attempts to revolutionize the medical field through caring and compassion, but he persevered. People like him are the “crazy ones”, who have chosen the path to embrace apathy with joy, indifference with love and professionalism with the spirit of serving others. People like him are doctors of the soul, who are very much needed in this time and age.
Edgar Boone