In Pursuit of Perfection

“Upon what instrument are we two spanned, and what musician holds us in his hands?”

Rainer Maria Rilke

This past week was a very busy yet very interesting time for me.  Early in the week, I had a visit from an old medical school classmate who is now one of our nation’s leading researchers in diabetes and other endocrine diseases.  Although most of his time is spent in the lab, he still prides himself on being an outstanding clinician, and I can attest to that.  I would choose him for my own personal physician any day, were he not based at Duke in Durham, NC.  He told me the following story:  a few months ago he was the attending physician on the endocrine consultation service.  The fellow on duty was called for a consult on a middle aged man who needed an amputation for vascular complications related to his diabetes, and the surgeon needed to make sure his blood sugars were under control before taking him for surgery.  The endocrinology fellow assessed the patient’s insulin requirements, and also mentioned that the man was complaining of some mild upper back pain, which seemed insignificant at the time. The case was presented to my friend, was assessed to be routine, and the patient went to surgery.  Shortly after the operation, the man suffered a cardiac arrest due to a myocardial infarction in the posterior circulation.  He did not survive.  My friend, whose job was NOT to assess the patient’s cardiac status, but rather his diabetic control, is still beating himself up about the patient’s death, many months later.  He insists that he should have asked the surgeon for a cardiac work up prior to the surgery.

On Thursday, I flew to Kalispell, MT to attend my nephew’s graduation from Montana Academy, a boarding school dedicated both to academic excellence, and the therapeutic mission of helping teenagers with problems learn to cope in positive ways. At the graduation ceremony, I was moved to tears several times, first by the headmaster’s recounting of the tale of Odysseus and the Cyclops as an analogy for the importance of finding and declaring one’s true identity, and later by the speeches of some of the parents whose children had benefited from this school, set in the green pastures and foothills of Montana. Finally, and even more importantly, some of the students themselves spoke, hesitating at first and stumbling over their words, but gaining strength from the support of the gathered crowd as well as their teachers, counselors and the founders of the school sitting behind them.  The students spoke of the failures which led them to the academy, each small but increasingly significant success they met there, and their hopes and dreams for the future.  These students were articulate and impressively intelligent. The last student who spoke was particularly moving, when she said, “Here I discovered that I am worthy of love, and that I DESERVE to love and be loved in return.”

We all strive for perfection, and yet for most of us it is our failures which teach us the meaning of life and of being human.  Some of us are lucky enough to learn this at eighteen, but many of us are still learning these lessons at sixty.  Last night, as I prepared for bed a row of necklaces I have hanging from pegs in the bathroom caught my eye—fossil mammoth ivory turned blue from arctic hoarfrost, and set with a fire opal, lapis prayer beads from Bhutan, ancient carnelian beads from the mountains of Nepal, and an old Chinese quartz crystal set in silver with enameled symbols of yin and yang.  I wondered, for myself, for my nephew and for my old friend, what talismans are these which can keep us safe, which can protect us from our own demons?  And what great musician holds us in his hands?  We can only continue to do the very best we can.