The world is still reeling from the Boston marathon bombing. How can we understand such a tragedy? We cannot. I cannot so I will not even try.
Would it be safe, accurate or fair to say that the marathon is just a bigger arena for society’s ills to be played? I could say that sometimes these dramas are frequent occurrences at my work place…only on a much smaller scale. Just last week an incarcerated patient with two guards escaped from their care and went down the back elevator. How all this happen is a mystery.
When I got to work, the hospital grounds were full of police cars. Breakfast was late as the hospital was shut down and the police combed every room and closet. Patients asked what they were looking for. A bomb? How do you reassure them. I thought a person was better than a bomb. But I didn’t specify. We got the ALL CLEAR by 9:30. And he was found later in the day in a car downtown.
This is just one of many incidences where our safety is at risk that we have to deal with, along with the usual duties of saving lives, emptying bedpans, reassuring patients and families. Sometimes we forget about ourselves. Who can understand what has happened to our world?
But I still try to take in the what is right and the beautiful in the world – the yin and the yang, the shadow and the light. Perhaps we need both to guide us. So I breathe, relax and keep driving ahead, with them windshield wipers slapping time and singing along.
