Counting Down to 90 - Week 1552 - Staying Sane When the World Goes to Pieces

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

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I was doing my Case of The Day YouTube video on Thursday and unable to hold myself back, I spent a minute or so just talking about the effect that terror attacks like the one in Pahalgam that occurred two days prior on 22^nd April,  can have on us.

It's never easy and proximity to the event, physically or emotionally (knowing someone who was killed or affected) determines how badly our emotions go through a wringer. 

I first wrote about terror attacks in 2006, when there were bomb blasts a week earlier, recalling what had happened in 1992/1993. I then wrote about 26/11 in 2008, 20 days after the attacks, and then another one a week later about why we should not cancel the Mumbai Marathon in Jan and we should run and participate, despite what the city and we had gone through.

What really gets to me is the feeling of worthlessness and helplessness, the realization that we cannot do anything at all to counter what other people do to us and those around us and the fact that we have no control over most such situations in our lives. So Donald Trump can play with us with his tariff games and all we can do is watch from the sidelines hoping this does not upend our lives and terrorists can come out of the woods in Pahalgam and go on a shooting spree and there is not a damn thing anyone of us can do. 

It affects us whether we realize it or not. If you were to take the time off to introspect, you might realize the impact of such events, touching you consciously or subconsciously, physically and emotionally/mentally, the day you first read or heard the news and a few days thereafter. 

So what can we do? I can’t speak for others, but I can say something about what doctors and radiologists can do. 

Get up in the morning, show up at work, continue to take decisions that affect the lives of our patients, do whatever it takes to alleviate their pain and suffering and in the end, hope that we have positively made a difference to at least one life during the day. 

We may have no control over the behavior of people like the Pahalgam terrorists, but we do have control over our behavior, and to some extent of those who work with or for us. Perhaps then, the best way to cope with the situation and to do something positive, is to actually think about the difference we make to people who come to us with their physical (or mental) problems and then do everything mindfully and consciously to help them navigate their problems in the best way possible.

Each time we make a difference to someone’s lives, because we have the power and ability to do so, we add a strong string to the fabric of this world that holds people together in the face of the disruption cause by terrorists and other similar people the world over. 

Showing up and continuing to do what we do, is the best way we keep ourselves sane in the face of terror and death.