Such an excellent, excellent post Louise!!! So much to salute you for, (especially the crochet!) 😉and so much value to unpick. I have to go back and read again. I'm pleased you retired as a surgeon for all of your reasons you've highlighted but especially to share your YOU words here!
Thank you! Haha I'm glad you liked the crochet (though reading too fast had my heart skipping a beat at the thought of unpicking the crochet stitches!!). I really appreciate your kind words x
Your point about "enmeshment" is fascinating, and it got me thinking about the flip side of it. What if we embrace enmeshment, not as a trap, but as a temporary, immersive experience? Like a method actor diving deep into a role, we could fully inhabit a career, knowing that it's a chapter, not the whole book. This way, when it's time to pivot, we're not losing ourselves, but rather shedding a skin, ready to try on another. It's like saying, "I was a surgeon, and I was damn good at it, but that's one facet of me, not the whole gem." It takes the sting out of leaving and makes room for joyful exploration.
Hello Louise, thank you for sharing your wise and insightful thoughts. It was a delight to read and somewhat of a privileged peek into ideas and considerations of someone who has attained a remarkable professional standard of achievement, and no doubt contributed hugely to the care and well-being of others. I don’t recall who it was that originated the quote somewhat along the lines of ‘the greatest evil in the world is the causation of human suffering’ but truly it must’ve been wonderfully life affirming to have a hand in healing such harms. I was lucky enough in my younger days to have attended college in California and have come across a very accomplished, author, neurosurgeon, and generally rather brilliant person who in one of his books when contemplating the nature of success in life said that it was only to be found within the context of the quality of the human relationships that you have enjoyed and in very little else. Strange too in short order this is the second time a piece of writing has given me the opportunity to quote from my recollection of Freud - about how the quiet voice of the intellect will always find a way to make itself heard. I suppose, in common with your own thoughts it’s really a matter of calming oneself and listening carefully! I know that when my own parents retired within a matter of months they commented that their lives to become so full and busy that they could not possibly imagine how they’d ever had the time to go to work. I love what you’ve said to about the joy that you find in words and I often think that in order to think at all, what does require a rich vocabulary. I wish reminds me of how the Japanese author Mishima a set of his own writing process that it was a matter of carefully weighing each word in pharmaceutical scales before writing it down.
And surely it cannot be for no reason that as a preverbal children our lives to haunted by all manner of unnameable fears and dreads. Literally those things which we had not yet acquired the language to describe. I look forward to reading much more of your work. I feel that you have a wonderful perspective and it’s very generous that you share it with us approaching 60 with my own thoughts turning to retirement to realize perhaps that it may well be a later than I had thought! Kindest regards to you.
Hi Jeremy, thank you for such thoughtful analysis and kind compliments.
It was the privilege of my life to do the work I did, and though there will always be a sadness that I couldn't find a way to keep doing it, I am grateful that I had the opportunities I did to care for children and families through some of the most difficult experiences of their lives. My life is irrevocably changed for having met them. I fully agree with your neurosurgeon friend in that human connection and relationships are central to the quality of our lives. It really is all about love.
Thank you for sharing Freud's words too, somehow I had never come across that particular quote, but yes, quieting the noise is often the hardest part but the inner voice has the wisdom we need if only we pause to listen. I love the words you've shared from Mishima, too - how perfectly detailed an analogy!
Thank you again, I have learned so much more about my own writing through your interpretation and I am ever grateful. May your retirement be as wonderful as mine is turning out to be thus far!
Such an excellent, excellent post Louise!!! So much to salute you for, (especially the crochet!) 😉and so much value to unpick. I have to go back and read again. I'm pleased you retired as a surgeon for all of your reasons you've highlighted but especially to share your YOU words here!
Thank you! Haha I'm glad you liked the crochet (though reading too fast had my heart skipping a beat at the thought of unpicking the crochet stitches!!). I really appreciate your kind words x
Your point about "enmeshment" is fascinating, and it got me thinking about the flip side of it. What if we embrace enmeshment, not as a trap, but as a temporary, immersive experience? Like a method actor diving deep into a role, we could fully inhabit a career, knowing that it's a chapter, not the whole book. This way, when it's time to pivot, we're not losing ourselves, but rather shedding a skin, ready to try on another. It's like saying, "I was a surgeon, and I was damn good at it, but that's one facet of me, not the whole gem." It takes the sting out of leaving and makes room for joyful exploration.
Hello Louise, thank you for sharing your wise and insightful thoughts. It was a delight to read and somewhat of a privileged peek into ideas and considerations of someone who has attained a remarkable professional standard of achievement, and no doubt contributed hugely to the care and well-being of others. I don’t recall who it was that originated the quote somewhat along the lines of ‘the greatest evil in the world is the causation of human suffering’ but truly it must’ve been wonderfully life affirming to have a hand in healing such harms. I was lucky enough in my younger days to have attended college in California and have come across a very accomplished, author, neurosurgeon, and generally rather brilliant person who in one of his books when contemplating the nature of success in life said that it was only to be found within the context of the quality of the human relationships that you have enjoyed and in very little else. Strange too in short order this is the second time a piece of writing has given me the opportunity to quote from my recollection of Freud - about how the quiet voice of the intellect will always find a way to make itself heard. I suppose, in common with your own thoughts it’s really a matter of calming oneself and listening carefully! I know that when my own parents retired within a matter of months they commented that their lives to become so full and busy that they could not possibly imagine how they’d ever had the time to go to work. I love what you’ve said to about the joy that you find in words and I often think that in order to think at all, what does require a rich vocabulary. I wish reminds me of how the Japanese author Mishima a set of his own writing process that it was a matter of carefully weighing each word in pharmaceutical scales before writing it down.
And surely it cannot be for no reason that as a preverbal children our lives to haunted by all manner of unnameable fears and dreads. Literally those things which we had not yet acquired the language to describe. I look forward to reading much more of your work. I feel that you have a wonderful perspective and it’s very generous that you share it with us approaching 60 with my own thoughts turning to retirement to realize perhaps that it may well be a later than I had thought! Kindest regards to you.
Hi Jeremy, thank you for such thoughtful analysis and kind compliments.
It was the privilege of my life to do the work I did, and though there will always be a sadness that I couldn't find a way to keep doing it, I am grateful that I had the opportunities I did to care for children and families through some of the most difficult experiences of their lives. My life is irrevocably changed for having met them. I fully agree with your neurosurgeon friend in that human connection and relationships are central to the quality of our lives. It really is all about love.
Thank you for sharing Freud's words too, somehow I had never come across that particular quote, but yes, quieting the noise is often the hardest part but the inner voice has the wisdom we need if only we pause to listen. I love the words you've shared from Mishima, too - how perfectly detailed an analogy!
Thank you again, I have learned so much more about my own writing through your interpretation and I am ever grateful. May your retirement be as wonderful as mine is turning out to be thus far!