One Wish

So another thought crossed my mind on my recent cruise. A local art gallery was showcasing an interesting project - the theme was "one wish" based on the ancient Japanese 'Senbazuru', the tradition of folding 1000 cranes in order to make one wish true. The local artist started with the oncology department of the local hospital and this quickly expanded to involve an entire community.

What interested me mostly was the superstition surrounding this ritual that somehow folding paper cranes would grant a wish like helping someone through cancer. The medical-indoctrinated scientific part of me instantly rejected such a notion as it does to other alternative/herbal rubbish they always push towards chronic disease. While I can agree that medicine doesn't have answers to many chronic diseases, the majority there is still some management of problems arising from the issue whereas I'm hesitant to say any things about herbs and other weird ion, acupuncture, homeopathy. But to take such a quick approach to dismissing all this felt foolish as well - for so many trials have demonstrated the undeniable effect of placebo, of wishful thinking and the cranes epitomise this more than anything else. They are much more than a single individual as they represent an entire community's good wishes and positivity. Above all, they are small multicoloured ornaments of hope.

So I think at the end of the day, I thought to myself that while hope might not cure cancer per se, they might increase the quality of life of the patient, and possibly decrease the side effects of chemotherapy treatment. At the end of the day, for an individual, such could be just as important as the treatment itself. The beauty though of seeing an ancient Japanese art and folklore transition into a modern symbol of hope in an mostly forgotten town of Australia reinforces that hope is universal, that globalism is extremely potent in its spread, and that traditions can transverse time and space and retain its idealistic melody.

On a personal level, I think the exhibition really got me thinking about my profession and what beholds in the near future. Part of me envisions a future where I can make systemic changes to improve the healthcare for a whole lot of people because sometimes medicine on a primary care level feels merely a bandaid - curing the problem after it happens rather than preventing the problem in the first place. But then something like observing this whole community work together to cheer patients and inspire collective resilience, this makes me reevaluate the fundamental reason I chose this profession to begin with - that changing even one person's life represents a practical, visible reaction to my services as a doctor. Changes to the system are slow, may not be visible, even in a single lifetime.

So most recently you can see that I have been pondering about my path in medicine more so and even on my holiday it formed a large part of my thoughts. Clearly I need a longer holiday.

Worrying about the more immediate issue of passing first so bye.