Echoes
There were eleven physicians around his bed today as he breathed his last, after almost half a decade of valiant battle against cancer. Some who had rushed in from other states to be there for that last watch. From the fellow (now professor) who had first diagnosed him, to me, his final pediatric oncology attending; the eleven of us quietly stood vigil with his family as his brave little heart finally came to rest.
I thought of many things during the long quiet wait. Of other patients, other friends, gone before, of treasured memory. Of courage; of loyalty; of sacrifice; of love; and those precious family and friends from whom it is received. But the particular thought that struck me, was a realization why I felt the same kind of fierce kinship between my colleagues in medicine, and my friends in the SCA/RenFaire world; a fierce sense of belonging on the wards I am on right now, and the Pennsic to which I hope in years future to go.
Most would argue that those worlds were as far apart as imaginable, with little to nothing in common. Certainly my rather mundane colleagues and comrades on wards would say so. But as different in many ways as they are, there is a spirit and ethos shared in both places, among both communities, that captures my own spirit and soul. A common defiant spirit which I realized explains why the wards, the labs, the fields of Pennsic and the woods of Revel Grove, all ring so true to me; and why I share such kinship, with comrades from them all.
Shield of the weak. Foremost in battle. Champion of the right and the good.
One equal temper of heroic hearts // strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find - and not to yield. - Tennyson