I joined a long queue of people at the check-out. ‘And what did you do today?’ I felt like asking them, annoyed that an important neurosurgeon like myself should be kept waiting after such a triumphant day’s work. But I then thought of how the value of my work as a doctor is measured solely in the value of other people’s lives, and that included the people in front of me in the check-out queue. So I told myself off and resigned myself to waiting. Besides, I had to admit to myself that soon I will be old and retired and then I will no longer count for much in the world.
