the importance of the other to us

we can build together

the life flight helicopter rises above the hospital
as I head into the great building where countless lives intersect,
each of us drawn there by our own needs--
whether to do the work,
whether to get the work done,
or whether just to visit and support,
there are so many ways in which bodies can glitch
and fill themselves with dysfunction and pain:
so many jobs to do, from the incision to the trash,
from the fixing of what is broken
to the care of the self
who rides the steed of the wounded body,

I celebrate the talents of the doctor and the nurse,
the technician and the orderly,
he who moves the beds
and she who cooks and delivers the meals,

as a species we are at our best
when we find how to organize ourselves
so that the gifts and needs of each individual
are celebrated and provided for within a collective,
like a family writ large,

a hospital can be such,
and so can government,
when we, at our best, move beyond greed as the end,
and find the other with whom we can build together.












by Henry H. Walker
March 25, ’12