Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese

was at those moments that God’s grace came, and that God’s plan was revealed, though it was revealed in His time. “I can’t see it, Lord, but I know You can,” she said.

Matron chose not to call Father de la Rosa of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, because he was a man who had a disapproving manner even when there was nothing to disapprove, and there was plenty here.

The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. If you keep saying your slippers aren’t yours, then you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”

Ideally you’d send it to pathology. That way if his wife gets pregnant a year from now, you can show the patient the pathology report and he’ll know it’s not because you didn’t do your job but because a third party did his job better.

“You use what? Interruptus? Pull and pray? Good God, man! No wonder you have five kids! It’s noble of you to try to get off the train at an earlier station, but it’s unreliable.

My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they’ll leave in people’s hearts. They realize that no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.

But I only knew real loss when I lost Ghosh. The hand that patted me and put me to sleep, the lips that trumpeted bedtime songs, the

That morning I heard the hum, the respiration, of the superorganism. It’s a sound I believe that only the new immigrant hears, but not for long.

In America, my initial impression was that death or the possibility of it always seemed to come as a surprise, as if we took it for granted that we were immortal, and that death was just an option.

I don’t mind the cold in Boston because every cold day reminds me how good it is to be out of Khartoum.

When you leave your country, you are like a plant taken out of soil. Some people turn hard, they can’t flower again.

Sick patients need to have everything explained at least twice, because you can presume they will not have heard half of what you said.

Every action of ours turned out to be dependent on the other.

The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not.