I am once in again in the upswing face in my activism mood cycle...feeling idealistic these days :) So bear with me and my current thoughts if you are reading this blog. Life continues to be a struggle and a challenge to make a difference- whether as a medical student or as a Christian. I am still constantly plagued with the doubts that my idealism is just a dream and that the weight of reality will eventually crush me into living a life that doesn't leave a dent in all the causes I struggle for. I look at the great figures of history..great men and women. I wonder how they did what they did. I wonder if I can do what they did; if i would step up to the challenge if it came. At the same time, i feel so ordinary and so powerless to change anything from the situation of many of my patients who lack healthcare insurance to the much bigger healthcare access problem in this country. What can one person do? But then in my newest obsessive reading craze- the life and works of Che Guevara, I hit upon something that's given me some insight. Perhaps it is this culture that teaches us that change only takes place through single extraordinary, moralistic or righteous figures- Martin Luther King, Jr., Che Guevara, Winston Churchill, or perhaps more modern heroes in medicine like Jack Geiger and Paul farmer. While,we, the multitude, the masses, of ordinary folk are impotent in making change. But I cant help but think as I read biographies that these folks were ordinary as well in their lives and actions, but unique in their unwillingness to be labeled as impotent faceless members of the population. Perhaps the belief in these demi-god like solitary heroes of history is just an illusion, a myth. We retell their story to fit our paradigm. I have yet to sort out the kinks in my argument and my thoughts are obviously still a bit scattered, but I am curious to see what people think about this point.
So here is my current voice of inspiration (although I'm not too sure I approve of the guerilla tactics of revolution he chose to employ) "On Revolutionary Medicine"
¶ 18:54