WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.910 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.910 --> 00:00:10.710 align:middle line:84% One of my jobs as now a faculty member at Harvard Medical 00:00:10.710 --> 00:00:14.190 align:middle line:84% School is to think about the ways in which literary writing 00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:17.730 align:middle line:84% and particularly poetry might serve as a kind of model 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:21.870 align:middle line:84% or perhaps an instrument for helping medical students 00:00:21.870 --> 00:00:24.540 align:middle line:84% and residents think about empathy and compassion 00:00:24.540 --> 00:00:27.570 align:middle line:84% in their relationships with patients, 00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:30.630 align:middle line:84% and I thought I would read this next poem 00:00:30.630 --> 00:00:34.360 align:middle line:84% as a kind of example of perhaps of what a definition of empathy 00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:34.860 align:middle line:90% might be. 00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:37.950 align:middle line:84% A lot of my colleagues challenge me 00:00:37.950 --> 00:00:41.250 align:middle line:84% first about whether one can even teach empathy, 00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:44.130 align:middle line:84% that that's something that in some sense is unteachable, 00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:48.190 align:middle line:84% and also that it's impossible to define. 00:00:48.190 --> 00:00:52.110 align:middle line:84% And so if you can't define empathy, what is it? 00:00:52.110 --> 00:00:54.870 align:middle line:90% Or how can you teach it? 00:00:54.870 --> 00:00:57.660 align:middle line:84% My response to that is often to say that at least I 00:00:57.660 --> 00:01:00.420 align:middle line:84% know what empathy isn't, and I can certainly 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:03.540 align:middle line:84% say that many of my experiences in working 00:01:03.540 --> 00:01:07.380 align:middle line:84% with my own supervisors during my own medical training 00:01:07.380 --> 00:01:12.030 align:middle line:84% made me very conscious of the lack of compassion 00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:13.330 align:middle line:90% in medical care. 00:01:13.330 --> 00:01:15.810 align:middle line:84% And, in fact, this next poem was one 00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:19.920 align:middle line:84% that I wrote in response to some of the feedback I had from one 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.110 align:middle line:84% particular supervisor who told me 00:01:22.110 --> 00:01:25.290 align:middle line:84% I tended to identify too strongly with my patients. 00:01:25.290 --> 00:01:28.650 align:middle line:84% And at the time I was actually struggling 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:32.520 align:middle line:84% with how I could be a more effective witness 00:01:32.520 --> 00:01:34.680 align:middle line:90% to the suffering of my patients. 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:36.180 align:middle line:84% And so my response to that feedback 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:40.350 align:middle line:84% was actually to write this poem, so I think in some sense 00:01:40.350 --> 00:01:43.950 align:middle line:90% it is a poem about empathy. 00:01:43.950 --> 00:01:45.920 align:middle line:84% I'll read it and let you judge for yourselves. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:47.880 align:middle line:90% It's called "Aida". 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:52.010 align:middle line:84% And it's from my very first book of poems. 00:01:52.010 --> 00:01:53.640 align:middle line:90% "Aida". 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:56.460 align:middle line:84% I've never met the guy next door. 00:01:56.460 --> 00:01:59.610 align:middle line:84% I know he's in there, mud caked shoes 00:01:59.610 --> 00:02:03.660 align:middle line:84% outside to dry, the early evening opera. 00:02:03.660 --> 00:02:08.610 align:middle line:84% The glow of candlelight his window trades for night. 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:11.970 align:middle line:84% I think he's ill since once the pharmacy delivered 00:02:11.970 --> 00:02:19.620 align:middle line:84% his prescriptions to my door, Acyclovir, Dilantin, AZT. 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:22.980 align:middle line:84% He doesn't go out running anymore. 00:02:22.980 --> 00:02:24.780 align:middle line:84% I've heard that he's a stockbroker who 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:27.330 align:middle line:90% cheats a little on his taxes. 00:02:27.330 --> 00:02:29.340 align:middle line:90% Not in love they say. 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:32.550 align:middle line:90% He seems to live alone. 00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:35.760 align:middle line:84% I eat my dinner hovering above my stove 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:41.070 align:middle line:84% and wondering why haven't we at least exchanged a terse Hello 00:02:41.070 --> 00:02:43.560 align:middle line:90% or shaken hands? 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:46.950 align:middle line:84% What reasons for the candlelight? 00:02:46.950 --> 00:02:52.380 align:middle line:84% His feet, I'm guessing by his shoes, are small. 00:02:52.380 --> 00:02:55.710 align:middle line:90% I can't imagine more. 00:02:55.710 --> 00:02:59.520 align:middle line:84% I'd like to meet him once outside without apartments, 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.400 align:middle line:90% questions, shoes. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:05.130 align:middle line:84% I'd say that I'm in love with loneliness. 00:03:05.130 --> 00:03:07.020 align:middle line:90% I'd sing like candlelight. 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:10.770 align:middle line:84% I'd sing the blues until we'd finished all the strawberries. 00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:16.020 align:middle line:84% We've never met and yet I'm sure his eyes are generous, alive, 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:19.440 align:middle line:84% like poetry but melting, brimming with the tears he 00:03:19.440 --> 00:03:21.390 align:middle line:90% cries for all of us. 00:03:21.390 --> 00:03:27.750 align:middle line:84% Aida, me, himself, all lovers who may never meet. 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:32.040 align:middle line:84% My wall was infinite and kind faced as the wealth 00:03:32.040 --> 00:03:34.170 align:middle line:90% of sharing candlelight. 00:03:34.170 --> 00:03:36.070 align:middle line:90% It falls. 00:03:36.070 --> 00:03:37.730 align:middle line:90% It falls. 00:03:37.730 --> 00:03:40.000 align:middle line:90%