Illness and death

One person I know has just had major surgery for cancer and is about to undergo chemotherapy. The mothers of two people I know have just recently been diagnosed with cancer. A minute ago I found out that another person I know has just had a friend die in intensive care.

Why is all this happening?

WWJD? To talk or not to talk?

My work is done and I'll leave the office with a thought for the day:

"They are a handful of miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion who wish to return to the monstrous dark delusions of the past."

-Father Eustathios Kollas, on the legitimisation of Greek God worship. See guardian unlimited.

I just had a thought of my own, too. I believe (forgive the simplification) that the Buddhist way of eating is in silence, to allow the eating and taste of the food to be experienced and appreciated fully. Talking and eating together would be dividing the mind. The Christian way seems a bit more social, e.g. wine and meat and laughter and talking. If we live our lives (as many try) by the principle 'what would Jesus do?' (WWJD), we'd probably choose the later. Isn't it a bit simplistic to take the practice of Jesus or the new testament church and make it our own? Would we make the Buddhist convert to Christianity talk whilst eating, in the name of being more "Christ-like"?

I can guess a response to this question. Of course Jesus if he grew up in an eastern culture would eat with a different style, possibly more "Buddhist". But then the Jesus we're takling about is a different one to the 1st Century Jew. You cannot remove someone from their cultural context; it's not them any more (unless you believe in some metaphysical appendix to the body/mind but that's another 10 minutes' discussion entirely). WWJD may be a good idea but, really, we don't live in 1st Century Palestine, nor are we all Jews - or males.

So maybe we cannot base our ecclesiology on going back to the early church, nor our dinner-ology on the penchants of Jesus and his first followers.

BIG FAT LUNCH

Time for the monthly mental health admin lunch-out, and this time it was a new Chilean café run by real live Chileans. Food was fantastic (though I still can't get used to eating chips again - too much oil), portions huge, and the photographs of Chile have added another firm contender for the next desination after England.

Back to work, and I have one roster to finalise, one to get in motion, consultant roster gap to cover, and an imposing leave application to get approved so that one of my house officers can get to go to England for interviews, and the thought of a relaxing Friday afternoon to wind-down before the weekend is lovely but sadly unreal.

Perspective

Thanks for your comments, Neal and Tumbleweeds. After feeling ever so slightly sorry for myself at the amount of work I have to do this week, I was greeted by this story http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1764531,00.html?gusrc=rss, which gave me a little perspective. It's about children who work in the factories of Delhi and I encourage you to read it if you have time. Here's the perspective:

I have to work 8 hours a day, if it's busy, occasionally that'll be 10. These guys work 16.

I started work when I wanted, at 16. These guys are children and need to work or die.

I have a office with a large window (if it's too hot) and a radiator (if it's too cold). I can shut my door and get privacy at lunch time. I've been to Delhi, and I tell you that a large fan-cooled hotel room is uncomfortable enough, and this is luxury compared to what these guys have.

I get 14 USD an hour, they'd be lucky to get 1USD a day.


So I won't complain.