The Debt

According to Chinese legend, there once was an old man who lived in the shadow of 2 mountains. He was unable to move about freely, so he resolved to move the mountains. He gathered his sons together, and they immediately set about digging. His neighbors came by and scoffed at the old man's folly. The old man replied calmly, “I have sons, and my sons will have sons, and their sons will have sons. Yet, the mountain will never grow higher.” The old man's determination was felt even in the heavens, and 2 immortals rewarded him by removing the mountains.

A Buddhist teaching advises that if one person does a good deed for you, you must repay it with good deeds for 10 others.

“Why did you want to become a doctor?” the medical student asked me. I had answered this question many times before. My rather typical answer back during my medical school interviews was that I was interested in science, I looked forward to intellectual challenges, and I wanted to help people.

There was much more to it, of course. To answer the question of how I became a doctor required going back at least 2 generations to explore my forebears' greatest hopes and aspirations. My brother and I had an obligation to become physicians to fulfill my grandmother's American dream. We also had a debt to repay, for the gift of my brother's life.

“How much time do you have?” I asked the medical student. “You may have to miss rounds for this.”

My grandmother, Jade, was born in rural China in 1896. “Jade” was an appropriate name, for like the stone she was named for, she was both beautiful and strong. Her father was a merchant. Her mother, as was common in those days, was illiterate. …