Understanding

A new year and a time to recommit.

I reflect on the work of Dr. Sherwin Nuland, clinician, professor of bioethics, and author of How We Die and How We Live: The Wisdom of the Body (among other works and accomplishments). Dr. Nuland died in 2014. In an interview with Krista Tippet, the host of the radio show On Being he spoke the following:

When you recognize that pain – and response to pain – is a universal thing, it helps explain so many things about others, just as it explains so much about yourself. It teaches you forbearance. It teaches you a moderation in your responses to other people’s behavior. It teaches you a sort of understanding. It essentially tells you what everybody needs. You know what everybody needs? You want to put it in a single word?

Everybody needs to be understood. And out of that comes every form of love.

http://www.onbeing.org/program/biology-spirit/184