Never Stop Caring

I don’t want to ever get to the point where I do not feel the gravity of the horrors of other people’s suffering. I want to make myself go there. If it ever gets to the point where I don’t bawl my eyes out at a St. Jude commercial, I will know that something terrible has overtaken me. It is very easy to become cold, nihilistic, and self-absorbed in our culture, but I want to swim against the current. I want to truly feel the pain and misery of the people I serve. I know I could never fully understand I am not in their paralyzed and failing bodies. At the same time, I do not want to detach myself to the point where I do not see a person in front of me. I would like to think of some of my clients as friends. To know they could be immobile in the months to come is a thought I can’t bear to entertain- yet I know it is the truth. There is no cure for Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s, or cancer. Most of them know it is too late for them. Although it is torture, I am glad I can still weep for them. It tells me I do not live inside my head.