A Soulful Journey

An older gentleman was on the operating table awaiting surgery and he insisted that his son, a renowned surgeon, perform the operation. As he was about to get the anesthesia, he asked to speak to his son. "Yes, Dad , what is it?" "Don't be nervous, son; do your best, and just remember, if it doesn't go well, if something happens to me, your mother is going to come and live with you and your wife...." Funny, isn't it?  Perhaps what makes it  must  funny is we know that caring for another human being, no strings  attached , is not easy but is our  responsibility .

Beliefs must rarely be rigid.   There are few “givens” in the world.   Our faith, for example, places life just about higher than anything else.   Life is paramount and even in the last whispers of a person’s life can come redemption.   That is why we never hasten a person’s demise.   And yet. Ambroise Pare is called the father of modern surgery.   In the sixteenth century Pare traveled with the armies of France into battle.   Once entering a barn to stable his horse, he found four dead soldiers and three wounded.   The faces of the living were contorted with pain.   Their clothes still smoldered from when gunpowder had burned them. One solider asked if Pare could cure them of their ailments.   Pare shook his head.   One old solider then rose and cut the throats of those in agony “gently, efficiently, and without ill will.” Pare cried that this man was a demon! “No,” came his response.   “I pray God that if ever I come to b...