I grew up with a harsh awareness of my own mortality. Though due in part to my drivers’ ed teacher, who spent most classes telling gruesome tales of the horrors that befall high schoolers who don’t pay attention while driving (you got your money’s worth, Mom and Dad!), I think the reality of cancer was what really struck me. It took my grandfather in his 70’s, and I miss him …
A popular teacher at our school recently gave a lovely talk about “emotional intelligence.” I was at once proud of my school for offering such a lecture and disturbed that it was necessary. Our schedules are flooded with lectures devoted to issues such as professionalism and emotional awareness. We’ve all heard stories about insensitive doctors with terrible bedside manner and outrageous faux pas by medical students, transmitted in whispers, and …
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