A Ritual to Read to Each Other

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,
but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider–
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give–yes or no, or maybe–
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

~ William Stafford

I read this beautiful poem in the wondrous book, Second Suns: Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives, by David Oliver Relin.  The book is about the work of Nepali doctor, Sanduk Ruit, and his American partner Dr. Geoffrey Tabin.  Their organization, The Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP), performs low-impact cataract operations in the developing world, installing artificial lenses to allow blind people to see again, usually overnight.

The author describes his adventures following these two remarkable surgeons as they perform amazing feats of healing in some of the poorest regions of the world.  He tells Dr. Ruit’s story of growing up in a remote Nepali village and how he came to be a world renown eye surgeon.  He describes Dr. Tabin’s amazing adventures as a world class mountain climber – including his summit of Mt. Everest.

It broke my heart to learn of the author’s 2013 suicide.  He was so passionate about investigating and reporting on how these two doctors brought their amazing healing vision to life.   He accompanied them through very difficult conditions in Nepal and Ethiopia.  I am grateful to Relin for writing such an amazing account of how HCP doctors performed some 266,000 successful operations in remote parts of the planet.

Truly a light in the world’s darkness.