The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine    

Professional Kindness

-- To all my friends, with love and thanks for Robert Cheney, DDS

It seems so rare
when competence and kindness cross
here
in America
in our own neighborhood
on our own street corners
Deeds of loving kindness
that do not pass across borders of country or state
but of the heart
the soul
the fabric that makes us
each to the other
human

Are not aid to strangers in strange lands
to unnamed
and faceless people
a well intentioned check written to a major charity
but gifts to those we choose to see
or not see every day
as we pass through the corridors and street corners
that are our lives

Nothing written up in the local paper
or aired on television
not even tax deductible
something done in quiet anonymity
no reason
no reasoning
the act itself
a blessing and an affirmation

Thank you

Published: December 19, 2007