It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.
Interpretation
Memory is the essence of our existence, serving as the only proof of our life experiences.
In this quote, Abraham Verghese highlights the profound significance of memory in our lives. He suggests that memory is not only a personal currency, reflecting our experiences and identity, but also the sole confirmation of our existence. By emphasizing memory, he implies that the richness of life is derived from the moments we hold and recall, thus reinforcing the idea that our past shapes our present and future.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of cherishing memories during a wedding.
The flip side of suicide is that it leaves a lingering question in the minds of the people who survived. It's like a cancer that's metastasized. The suicide is the cancer and the metastasis is all these people saying, Why? Why? Why?
We're losing a ritual. We're losing a ritual that I believe is transformative, transcendent, and is at the heart of the patient-physician relationship.
I still find the best way to understand a hospitalized patient whose care I am taking over is not by staring at the computer screen but by going to see the patient; it's only at the bedside that I can figure out what is important.
My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they'll leave in people's hearts. They realize the no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.
You are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can can play the 'Gloria'? No, not Bach's 'Gloria.' Yours! Your 'Gloria' lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.
Students undergo a conversion in the third year of medical school - not pre-clinical to clinical, but pre-cynical to cynical.
The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by the source.
Remember that you are in actor in a play of such a kind that the author chooses...For this is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you; but to select the part belongs to another.
Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.
But nothing is more insidious than the evolution of wishes from mere fancies, and of wants from mere wishes.
Philosophy can't build bridges, but can encourage people to cross them.
A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.
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