He confesses that he finds himself drifting into becoming a doctor who just goes through the motions: All my occasions of failed empathy came rushing back to me: the times I had pushed discharge over patient worries, ignored patients' pain when other demands pressed. At various points in my life, particularly in moments of profound change, I find myself returning to Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. His wrestling with mortality was for naught, yet something pivotal was gained. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect stage. I'm currently working on a book of poetry and various art projects. It will leave you breathless, too. Join my mailing list to receive more book recommendations via e-mail. Kalanithi reminds me, time and again, that I must not wait until the last minute to take stock, to pause, and to make sure that my values match my actions. Up to that point, Kalanithi remarks, “In my life, had I never made a decision harder than choosing between a French dip and a Reuben?”. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through to the books I've reviewed and choose to make a purchase. By all outward appearances, Paul Kalanithi had it all. Trained at a top medical school, his long years of residency nearly complete, the career he’d long dreamed of as a neurosurgeon was so close he could touch it. Some nonfiction books, however, can offer us a road map for living. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. When Breath Becomes Air is a non-fiction autobiographical book written by American Neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Kalanithi. Later, Kalanithi learns that the doctor had a choice: leave the babies in the womb, where they would likely die, or deliver them at 23 weeks—a few days short of viability. Right now, socially distancing ourselves from one another is the best option we have as a society to save lives and stop the spread of disease. Here's a man who is candid about his marital troubles. We're using cookies to improve your experience. We live in the midst of a pandemic where doctors, right now, are being forced to make life or death decisions. “I studied literature and philosophy to understand what makes life meaningful, studied neuroscience and worked in an fMRI lab to understand how the brain could give rise to an organism capable of finding meaning in the world, and enriched my relationships with a circle of dear friends through various escapades.”, Kalanithi ultimately became a doctor to answer life’s most important question: “What makes human life meaningful?” He finds something of an answer in the marriage of literature and neuroscience. “Every operation on the brain is, by necessity, a manipulation of the substance of ourselves, and every conversation with a patient undergoing brain surgery cannot help but confront this fact,” he writes. His wife asks, “Don’t you think saying goodbye to your child will make your death more painful?” Kalanithi responds, “Wouldn’t it be great if it did?”, As a doctor, Kalanithi is forced to make split-second judgement calls that can mean the difference between life and death. As Kalanithi navigates the ravages of terminal cancer, he finds meaning in his relationships. In this time of uncertainty, I find myself asking myself whether I am working on the projects I find most meaningful given life’s finitude. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” Kalanithi wrote.
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