You are not a God

I was listening to Frithjof Bergman on the Partially Examined Life podcast and he spoke about the intolerability of hard work in in hard jobs - how the joy left work when recuperative powers and opportunities were inadequate.  Bergman has been advocating for New Work - a new, more sustainable, more communitarian approach to work.

The example I thought of was a friend who was trying out palliative care as a medical specialty.  What was it like?  'People are dying,' he said.  Most people would come into his care when home care was over, only a few days before they would die. He would talk to families, prescribe pain killers and (conceivably) minor procedures to relieve suffering. I'm not sure of the stats, but I think three to five people died each week. No one survived.  Palliative care is a hard specialty to fill - not many people feel called to it, and not many can face the strain of so much death indefinitely.  My friend worked a year there, but afterward he took a different path.

At the time, I thought that there was a need for community representation right alongside him, for other people to share the load on a rotating basis.

The New Work ideas made me think of this again.  In Ancient Rome, a successful general might Triumph into Rome, applauded by all Rome.  But behind him stood a slave to say ' You are not a God, you are just a man' throughout.

A palliative care Dr, supervising the ragnarok of a human life, has the mirror image, the final defeat, happening on his watch.  Maybe he or she needs someone whispering in their ear 'You are not God. This person died, but you only did them good all the days you knew them. Death is not your responsibility.'