Why I Write

Why do I write?  Certainly not for prestige or money.  Being a surgeon provides more direct ways to achieve those goals than writing.  But, having been a surgeon for nearly thirty years, operating on thousands of patients, I have had the opportunity to see the unique precious value of every human life, as well as the connectedness between those lives.  As much as I have touched my patients’ lives through surgery, they have touched me in return.  Whether freeing a child from the burden of a congenital deformity, or simply helping a person through a difficult time in their life, it has always been a privilege for me to be that person’s surgeon.  There is spectacular value in the simplest of human persons in the most mundane of situations. I know, because I have seen it.  I write so as not to forget it.

And I write to understand.  To witness the order and beauty underlying all human life, is an enticement to seek the origin of that life; of all life and of all things.  There are so many things unseen, untouchable, yet nonetheless knowable.  Certitude in understanding is not only possible, but also reasonable and logical.

And finally, I write to share.  Like it or not, we are one human family, despite our dysfunctional moments.  Bound together in love, it is our duty to share, to speak of what we have seen and known.  And so I share my thoughts, insights, imagination, and understanding, not to proselytize, but to encourage others to do the same, to set out into the speculative world of profound wonder and deep thoughts, to remember, to understand, and to share.