need/want pt. 2

I have, however, learned the price of a life. I see these patients come into my clinic and assess them, spry old things with lots of stories and quips. I work with them for days, improving their strength, getting them on the recumbent bike, clapping on their backs to improve secretion removal. I listen to their life's tale, then I listen to their lungs, then I listen to their hearts dying, gurgling.

I come to work the next morning and he's in the hospital, she's in the hospital. Cachexia, congestive heart failure, stroke. Then they get discharged from the program; they are never coming back. They go from two years ago running marathons to multi-system atrophy and 2-wheeled walkers to the hospital for 4-person assist. I see them at their homes holding their puppy, showing me their room and the pictures of them when they were young.

If the death of one or two affects me so. I begin to see life as it is, to be happy and grateful and to thank God that every day we are alive is a blessing. I look at my parents and know that they too are getting old and I thank Heavens that we can still go to dim sum together.

I cannot help but wonder that if my heart cries out for one or two, then what about the parts of the world where hundreds, thousands dying means nothing to us over here. If we could stop the death of one, we save at least the grief of having one more dead. Nobody should ever have to experience sorrow and anguish.

I often contemplate the answer to this question, and often have many an answer. But I think the meaning of life is to preserve it and to do as much as you can to save life.