NURSE OLVIA AND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE [M, 3-28-22]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith and Life for the Years of Winter

Helen went to the doc, follow-up to her fall. Doc said she was very lucky to have such a mild concussion from such a major fall. That’s good.

She gave her exercises to do to deal with the dizziness. That’s not so good. One problem with our doc is that she is very big on giving you work to do to solve your problems, rather than just taking care of them for you. Did some lab tests, too, because all doctors love those.

So, nurse Olivia called with test results. Helen was in the shower, so Olivia figured that she could trust me--even though, as I shall explain later, she should know better--and told me that Helen is not anemic but her blood sugar was low, so they thought she might be fasting. I assured her that it’s been a long time since anyone around this house did any fasting, including the tiny black ants that have shown up along with the daffodils and forsythia [1] and weeping cherry trees, so she said to have Helen call them when she got clean, and asked if I had any more questions.

 

She’s fairly new, but she should already know better--from that incident when I told her I was Dr. V’s “favorite” patient, when I meant to say that Dr. V called me her “perfect” patient, because I always tell her my symptom history in the proper order, because I am a narrativist, and then Olivia told me later that I really was Dr. V’s favorite patient, because she had asked her, which was very embarrassing—Olivia asked if I had any questions. So, I asked her what the purpose of life is.

Then I found out that I had unconsciously been underestimating Olivia, probably because she is young and pretty and perky. She smartly turned it around. “You’d be better at that than I. You should tell me. What do you think is the purpose of life?”

 

She was pleased when I told her that the purpose of life is to have a good time. I would have gone on to quote John 10:10 to her, but she giggled, and giggles always make me lose my focus.

John Robert McFarland

[1] Friend and colleague and former student, Cindy Jones, said that she has always loved forsythia, for when she was little, she always heard forsythia as For Cynthia.