Deus Caritas Est

I once came across a woman who was disappointed that her son became a pharmacist and not a doctor. True story. She felt let down because her other three children were MDs.

It seemed amazing to me for a few reasons (aside from the fact that pharmacy is about as important and respectable as medicine). I remember thinking about all the things the guy could've done (dropping out of high school, joining a gang, becoming a tax collector--j/k). There were so many reasons for the mom to be happy and so few to be sad.

Many of my recent experiences with parents show that there are many challenging and trying realities that are much worse than the failure to take the Hippocratic oath. Then again these unfortunate things can sometimes be great blessings.

This was the case for me when a 6 year old girl who has a missing corpus callosum, autism, hearing and visual impairments, heart defects and mental retardation looked at me with obvious mirth in her eyes and said "Goodbye, I'll see you tomorrow." It was a wonder to hear an appropriate statement like that from her...especially since she had never spoken a year ago.

Those are the kind of things that make pharmacy and medical degrees seem so irrelevant.