Mistaken Sacrifices

     I thoroughly enjoy reading W. Somerset Maugham. In the preface to his “Collected Short Stories Vol 4.” (Penguin Books, 1973) he says that these “were written long before the Second World War and I should tell the reader that the sort of life with which they deal no longer exists.” Later he describes a hotel that “should have been a depressing place, but somehow it wasn’t; its quaintness saved it. It had a faint aroma of something strange and half-forgotten.”
     From detailed loving attention alone, Maugham is able to rebuild the irretrievable past, even for readers not yet born, nor ever having visited the places he describes. This brings to mind two of my favorite quotes: 
     "Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough."     George Washington Carver

      "You learn about a thing ... by opening yourself wholeheartedly to it. You learn about a thing by loving it." Barbara McClintock - Nobel prize-winning geneticist

     How radically different than the life of today's health-care providers and first responders: police, firefighters, paramedics & prison guards. It's shocking how much these fine people knowingly, but especially unknowingly, sacrifice. By maximizing their external actions ('doing'), they almost totally neglect their inner life ('being'), all because of a collective, unexamined ethos of 'traditional masculinity.' Anything 'soft', like self-reflection, self-compassion & appropriate self-care, is rigidly excluded to avoid any suggestion of weakness or lack of competence. This bravado continues despite a high incidence of primary & secondary traumatization, burnout, PTSD & suicide. 
     Socrates knew 2,500 years ago that the unexamined life is not worth living. Why do so many of us have to crash & burn to find this out for ourselves? How long will it take these professional cultures to intentionally evolve toward a wiser worldview?

     Traditional masculinity: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2017/05/traditional-masculinity-in-health.html 
     Sanity: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/02/sanity-diligent-introspection-in.html