"FIRST DO NO HARM" | Heal Yourself

 

As a Gen-Xer raised in a military family overseas, I was taught to be deflect any attention that came my way onto anything that was 1) close enough, 2) big enough, and 3) much more interesting. It first began as a matter of survival but then later dovetailed into a religious principle of devoted self-marginalization which lasted for the better part of four decades.

That notion of humility isn't anything to brag about either. It's humiliating, debilitating, and can also be lethal. I know this because it almost cost me my life. In all of my training

First, do no harm. 

Hippocrates penned those words. He was he Ancient Greek physician after whom the Hippocratic Oath is named. The idea is that saving life is the goal, and the practice is that every step contribute to the goal. The problem for people with a marginalized view of themselves, however, is that First, do no harm always applies to others and never to yourself. Realistically, First, do no harm should apply to yourself first if you are ever to First, do no harm to another.

Before you heal someone,

ask him if he's willing to give up the things

that make him sick.

Hippocrates also said that. And we should each apply this rule to ourselves first before we apply it to others. And here's the reason why. Because when you want others to be fixed more than you want it for yourself, it's not really healing that you want: it's distraction. And that distraction can last only as long as others never get well.

THE MARTIAN | "If You Solve Enough Problems, You Get to Come Home"

Several years ago, I watched THE MARTIAN with my wife. The movie follows the story of astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who is left stranded on Mars after his crew mistakenly believes he has been killed during a violent storm. The film showcases Watney's gradual, painful realization of just how bad his situation is. 

But then we're shown a series of tipping points that each drive Watney's relentless pursuit of survival as he uses his particular knowledge, outlier ingenuity, and frugal resourcefulness to overcome numerous challenges, find a way to communicate with Earth, and ultimately return home. 

After Watney returns home (spoiler alert), he attributes his survival to the following maxim:

"If you solve enough problems,

you get to come home."

I'm no Martian but have found this rule to be generally true in desperate times. I've modified Watney's rule to fit my own non-Martian experiences: 

"If you solve enough problems one at a time,

then you are likelier to come home (than not)."

Sometimes, my survival has depended on creating a detailed list and then working each item on the list as if it were the only item on the list. The Tao te Ching says something similar:

"Treat simple things

as if they are difficult."

If you treat simple things as if they are difficult, then you are doing the simple thing carefully. Although a fictional character, Watney survives because he wasn't dismissive of any one thing that linked to the next one thing until he found himself to be a survivor.