2007年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-Every Person Is Precious

From NPR News, this is weekend edition. I'm Liane Hanson.

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.

For our regular series--This I Believe, we've been asking you for your contributions.

Today we have an essay sent to us by Isabel Legarda, a Belmont Massachusetts.

Legarda is a thirty-five-year-old mother of two. She's recently completed her residency and is aboard certified¹ anesthesiologist. Here is our series curator, independent producer Jay Allison.

For some people who write for our series their work is the expression of their belief. The belief comes first and the action follows. That's true for Isabel Legarda, but her work, and its simple essential tasks, confirms her conviction even when it wavers. As you'll hear in her essay for This I Believe.

I'm often asked why I chose to be an anesthesiologist. The truest answer I give is that anesthesiology is a spiritual work. The word spiritual can have different meanings. I think of the Latin root-spiritus, breath, inspiration. Words that resound² in both medicine and faith. Words that help define my life and work.

My spirituality has evolved hand-in-hand with my becoming a physician. In medical school, a classmate and I once found ourselves talking not about science but about faith. We had been raised in different traditions, and he asked me, "If you could verbalize in one sentence the single most important idea at the heart of your religion, what would you say?" I imagined my religion at its origins, untouched by history. No canon of stories, traditions, rituals, no trappings — one sentence to distill³ everything that mattered? I paused for a second before it came to me, like a sudden breath: Every person is precious. That was the core of my faith.

But when I finished medical school and started residency, my spiritual life began to fray⁴ at the edges. I couldn't reconcile the suffering of children with the idea of a merciful God. Once, while making rounds, I unintentionally walked in on parents praying ardently⁵ at their infant daughter's hospital bed. Though I was moved, I remembered wondering if it was any use. I struggled to make spiritual connections.

The moment I chose my specialty⁶, though, I began suturing together some of those tattered⁷ edges of faith. One day, an anesthesiologist taught me how to give manual breaths — to breathe for a child while he couldn't breathe for himself. On that day, my life turned. I took on the responsibility of sustaining the life-breath of others, and slowly I opened up to spirit once again. Now, whenever I listen to patients' breath sounds while squeezing oxygen into their lungs or intervening when their blood pressures sag⁸, when I hold their hands or dry their tears, I find myself literally⁹ in touch with the sacred.

Perhaps for some, this degree of control creates a sense of power. For me, it is profoundly humbling¹⁰. I realize that if I forget I am standing¹¹ on holy ground in the O.R. and fail to approach my patients for reverence¹², I risk their lives.

Every person is precious: This I believe with my whole heart. Each time I keep watch over patients and protect them when they're most vulnerable, my faith comes alive. It catches breath: spiritus.

Isabel Legarda with her essay for This I Believe. One of Leagrda's main influences was her anatomy¹³ professor, a Franciscan priest. She told us some mornings, she would hear him talk about the embryologic origin of the duodenum and then attend his new mass to hear him connect scripture¹⁴ to the rest of life. We welcome all your essays in our series. And at npr.org/thisibelieve, you can find out how to submit and read what others have written. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison.

In two weeks we'll bring you another essay in our series from Michael Oldman of Cleveland, Ohio on the belief which took him off the streets and gave him a future he hadn't imagined. This I Believe is independently produced by Jay Allison, Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick.

Support for This I Believe comes from Prudential Retirement¹⁵.

1 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

2 resound   

v.回响

参考例句：

• A roar of approval resounded through the Ukrainian parliament.一片赞成声在乌克兰议会中回响。
• The soldiers' boots resounded in the street.士兵的军靴踏在地面上的声音在大街上回响。

3 distill   

vt.蒸馏，用蒸馏法提取，吸取，提炼

参考例句：

• This standard set determine the method of petroleum products distill.本标准规定了测定石油产品蒸馏的方法。
• Distill the crucial points of the book.从书中提炼出关键的几点。

4 fray   

v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗

参考例句：

• Why should you get involved in their fray?你为什么要介入他们的争吵呢？
• Tempers began to fray in the hot weather.大热天脾气烦燥。

5 ardently   

adv.热心地，热烈地

参考例句：

• The preacher is disserveing the very religion in which he ardently believe. 那传教士在损害他所热烈信奉的宗教。 来自辞典例句
• However ardently they love, however intimate their union, they are never one. 无论他们的相爱多么热烈，无论他们的关系多么亲密，他们决不可能合而为一。 来自辞典例句

6 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

7 tattered   

adj.破旧的，衣衫破的

参考例句：

• Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
• Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。

8 sag   

v.下垂，下跌，消沉；n.下垂，下跌，凹陷，[航海]随风漂流

参考例句：

• The shelf was beginning to sag beneath the weight of the books upon it.书架在书的重压下渐渐下弯。
• We need to do something about the sag.我们须把下沉的地方修整一下。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 humbling   

adj.令人羞辱的v.使谦恭( humble的现在分词 )；轻松打败（尤指强大的对手）；低声下气

参考例句：

• A certain humbling from time to time is good. 不时受点儿屈辱是有好处的。 来自辞典例句
• It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-buildingexperience. 据说天文学是一种令人产生自卑、塑造人格的科学。 来自互联网

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

13 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

14 scripture   

n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段

参考例句：

• The scripture states that God did not want us to be alone.圣经指出上帝并不是想让我们独身一人生活。
• They invoked Hindu scripture to justify their position.他们援引印度教的经文为他们的立场辩护。

15 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。