FootprintsintheWind.com

You can see
inside a person
by the questions
He or she asks
—and does not ask

:- Doug.

The between
the whole
is alive
we have eyes
to see

:- Doug.

If we pour this water
on this snow
will it melt the snow
or be frozen by it?
Both in turn
For as water it is warmer
then it cools and freezes
till in spring
both melt, become one
and flow out of sight

:- Doug.

Opening vulnerably
To the world I am
Surprised that it also to me!

:- Doug.

How our way of thinking, seeing everything in numbers and statistics and Dollars, fearing face to face, forcing people to have so many patients they cannot find out who they are, is causing suffering and wrong deaths! We can meet each other. It happens in an instant but it takes a commitment to the time it takes. Humans deserve our humanity. Death is not the enemy. Do no harm.

:- Doug.

Do not take from me a gentle death, a fighting death, whatever death is mine. This is a human rights issue, a human issue.

:- Doug.

What life are we doing everything to keep going? The tubes and technology and drug-induced grogginess, interacting with new strangers every few hours? Or the most profound days of our lives? What can we do to make the latter?

:- Doug.

To endure the death and sufferings of patients doctors can distance themselves from names and relationships. But what if the deaths are contributed to by anonymity, what if our attitude toward persons—persons!—directly caused the suffering? Theirs and ours?

:- Doug.

Why do everything possible to keep someone alive when nature has decided a more gentle outcome?

:- Doug.

At what age do we become ineligible to be seen and treated as a person?

:- Doug.