To Practice Pure, or Not to Practice Pure, That is the Question
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous mandates,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, ‘though opposing, fail to thwart them?
To practice free: to practice pure–no more;
and by a Practice Pure to say we end
The heartache and the thousand unnatural laws
‘They’ thrust upon us.
‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d.
To practice pure, to care;
To care, perchance to think.
Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that time to think, what insights may come
Before we shuffle off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
There’s the respect that makes calamity of past dedication:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of prevailing practice
The Oppressor’s demands, the Insurance Company’s contumely
The pangs of despised Rules, the Payor’s delays,
The insolence of Administrators, and the spurns
Their Patients merit not, yet suffer from the unworthy takers,
When he himself might his departure make
With a bare penstroke?
Who would, these burdens, bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But those who dread that a Practice Free and Pure–
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveler desires to return–would perchance fail fiscally to supply,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to imbursement that we know not of.
Thus Cowardice does defeat the Conscience of us all,
And the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of fear,
And enterprises of great truth and moment
Are deferred, their import denied,
And so fail to gain the result of action….
…Soft you now, the fair Profession?
Hippocrates, in thy entreaties
Be all my dreams remembered.[5]
John Hunt, MD is a pediatric pulmonologist/allergist/immunologist in Virginia and author of the novel, ASSUME THE PHYSICIAN, written to make you laugh at the health care system yet love your profession. He presumes that Shakespeare will receive all credit due.
To Practice Pure or Not to Practice Pure, That is the Question
