The Hospital

Again on volunteering at the hospital. I went four or five times over break so I'm getting quite used to it.
This hospital has done things for my outlook. I really get to feeling that people are the same. That life is random for all of us, and that no matter how much power we have, we are all eventually quite helpless in the face of bad health. (I realize that mo money means mo treatment, but still, there comes a point...)
As a volunteer, I strive to be extra-friendly. I smile and say "good morning!" to EVERYONE I encounter. It feels good to be nice and to acknowledge everyone you meet. I never do this in stores, on the street, or at school. But when you're walking in a narrow hallway, you're forced to hold your head high, look the other person in the eye, and say something friendly, acknowledging their existence and wishing them a good day. The vast majority of people reply to my greetings with something similar - nurses, maintenance, security, volunteers, paid staff, visitors, people in wheelchairs, people pushing wheelchairs, etc. Doctors, interestingly enough, and I can tell they're doctors cos they look super-legit with their stethoscopes, tend to ignore me. But nevertheless, this is an arena where I and the rest of the staff/volunteers treat everyone equally, and well. We try to make the experience pleasant. The hospital tries to give the very best treatment. Even a hardcore racist would have a hard time mistreating someone that's come to visit their sick grandmother. At least, I think so. I hope so. And yes, there is that faint feelings of awkwardness or distrust, but it doesn't manifest itself, neither implicitly nor explicitly.

In the end, sickness and death is something we all share. Your age, race, language, religion, social class, and wealth have a little to do with it, but in the big picture, it's insignificant. Everyone gets sick, everyone dies. And that's the beauty of healthcare, at least in my view. You don't work to improve the lives of the particular groups you belong to. You work to improve EVERYONE's life. That's what a proper doctor, a proper nurse, a proper researcher will do. That's the intrinsic value. I can't deny the existence of racist, biased, prejudiced doctors nurses or researchers, but I do think that most those pulled into the medical professions have an ingrained love of all life that is difficult to corrupt with prejudice and bias. Anyway, I digress.
The important thing is that at this particular hospital at least, the boundaries separating us all are blurred, because here, everybody strives for the same thing.