Welcome Back to "Mortal Matters" (version 2.0)

Just over 2 years ago I wrote my last "Mortal Matters" blog post, "The Miracle of Candice", not realizing that The Boston Globe and boston.com had decided to stop hosting their "Community Voices" blogs. I had never thought of myself as a "blogger" kind of person, but looking back I find I have missed offering occasional blog-length reflections on medicine, ethics, and other topics.

I am currently in a reflective mood, as I wrote last month to my many cherished colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center:

This month [June 2016] I celebrate 30 wonderful years at BIDMC, and with BIDMC as a wonderful home base for many other things, sometimes far beyond our campus.  I have decided to celebrate by taking time away from July 1 to October 1 to reflect on the past 30 years, and on goals for the next phase of my work life.

A larger context for this is that my wife Susan and I became "empty nesters" two years ago -- three of our four wonderful children have now graduated from college, and our youngest daughter will likely do so in May 2018.  Sometime after that, Susan and I are considering whether we might do very different things with our lives -- the most radical change might be splitting our time between a US home base and periods of international work together.  Of course, it is also quite possible that we will not make any major changes at all.  In any case, since last year I have been telling people that my goal is that by 2018 or 2019 any of my current major work-related projects that are important to me will either have been completed, or will have become institutionalized or largely led (or at least easily could be) by others, so that they are no longer heavily dependent on me.   

To succeed in that means I need to become clearer than I currently am about what work-related things truly are most important to me, and why -- so I will be using this "Mortal Matters 2.0" space to reflect on those questions.

◊

My current plans for this blog, which will no doubt evolve in unpredictable ways, are to focus my initial "Mortal Matters 2.0" entries on a few very general "30,000-foot" themes that I find myself regularly coming back to when I reflect on more specific topics in "medicine" and "ethics".  These include thoughts on topics like:

What is "Ethics"?

What are -- or should be -- the "goals of medicine"?

Who was Albert Schweitzer, and why do I think his legacy remains so important for the world?

What is "Good Work" in medicine?  What sustains it?  What undermines it?  

After these initial high-level reflections, I currently expect to write mostly about narrower and more concrete topics.  While occasionally a posting will be sparked by recent news or current events, I will likely usually be writing on more timeless subjects (What is "hope"?  What is "healing"?  How can we support them?), often reflecting on experiences I have had over the past 35 years with individual patients, their families, and professional colleagues.

As I write about these and other topics, I will also frequently be thinking, writing about, and paying tribute to some of the people who have most influenced me.  On the last "30,000-foot" topic listed above ("Good Work" in medicine), for example, I am deeply indebted to to Howard Gardner for his pioneering explorations of these issues, initially in professional work, now in all of life. 

Finally, since most of what I know and value I have learned from other people, I am hoping that at least some of my blog entries will spark others to comment so that we can reflect and learn together -- so please do!