Sometimes, however, it can happen that an illness or a serious disability that mortifies and limits the body, even in a very evident way, can represent a real medicine for those who have to forcibly live with it without the possibility of alternatives. Because illness can really draw, for better or for worse, an indelible line in a person's life path. Or, even better, build a series of Pillars of Hercules beyond which it is impossible for us to go back, but, if we want, we are still allowed to look forward. And this is precisely the crux of the matter. When you are lucky enough to keep your cognitive abilities intact and unaltered, it is still possible to think about what you can do rather than what you are no longer able to do. If we think in these terms, illness can truly become a form of health. It is healthy because it allows you to still feel useful for yourself and others, starting with your family and continuing with friends and work colleagues.
And it's healthy because it helps you realize that you shouldn't take anything in life for granted, not even drinking a glass of water without choking. Sometimes we are so focused on ourselves that we don't notice the beauty of the people and things we've been around for years, maybe forever. So, when the disease stops you abruptly, it can happen that your scale of values changes and you realize that those who, up until that moment, we considered the most important were not really so deserving of the first places. In these times in which we speak more and more, with little clarity, of the "right to death", of the principle of self-determination, of patient autonomy, we must work concretely on the recognition of the dignity of the existence of every human being who must be the starting point and reference point for a society that defends the value of equality and is committed to ensuring that illness and disability are not or do not become criteria for social discrimination and marginalization. Pain and suffering (physical, psychological), as such, are neither good nor desirable, but this does not mean they are without meaning: and it is here that the commitment of medicine and science must concretely intervene to eliminate or alleviate the pain of sick or disabled people, and to improve their quality of life, avoiding any form of aggressive therapy.
This is a precious task that confirms the meaning of our medical profession, not exhausted by the elimination of biological damage.[…]
This is why I think that a sick body can bring health to the soul, making it stronger, more tenacious, more determined, more available to throw itself wholeheartedly into what you want. The urgency dictated by a pathological state can become an enormous stimulus to achieve goals considered unthinkable and apparently precluded in the "previous life". And I treasure what Stephen Hawking wrote: "Remember to look at the stars and not at your feet... However difficult life may be, there is always something that you can do, and that you can succeed at." Illness does not take away emotions, feelings, the possibility of understanding that being matters more than doing. It may seem paradoxical, but a naked body, stripped of its exuberance, mortified in its exteriority makes the soul shine more, that is, the place where the keys are present that can open, at any moment, the way to complete the task in the best way. own life path. In all of this, hope, which I define as that comforting feeling I feel when I see with my mind's eye that path that can lead me to a better condition, becomes my tool for daily life.
(Avvenire, 30 March 2017)