Not To Reason Why

https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/breaking-in-hiking-boots.html

     "How long will you continue to practice?" asks one of the important people in my life during one of our semi-regular lunches at the Bean.

It's a reasonable question from someone starting life after college to someone else opening a new office after the age of sixty. Implicit are concerns about finances, longevity, and fortitude for work. Why would one want to do something hard that doesn't have to be done?

___________

   The financial equation is unique to being a lifelong medical educator with a large and extended family. A life of contributing everything to the growth and well-being of the households leaves one unable to secure a loan to start a business. Living hand-to-mouth becomes a way of being when expenses are more or less equal to income.
    Brushes with skin cancer and, like many health care providers, tuberculosis raise concerns about being able to practice long enough to become profitable. New businesses generally take about five years to reach maximum income potential, though having been established in an academic practice in the same town for twenty-five should speed that up. Still, life and new ventures are always a gamble.
     It does take fortitude to bring energy to the table for the good of others day in and day out. Fortunately for me, doing so refuels the spirit at least as much as emptying it. On most days I feel better after having helped a handful of people in some small way.

__________

   


     After a moment's contemplation to the question at hand, the answer comes as an image of old man charging up the Judyville hill:

"I'll continue to see people as long as I can walk to work."

So take that Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ours but to do OR die!