An old Hindu/Arabic/secular/Jewish/Russian 
Proverb goes something like “I used to cry because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”
Yep, that’s right, a lot of cultures lay claim to that quote. I discovered this today as I tried to track down the source.
Why? Well, I was at my family doctor’s this morning, feeling a little low from not being able to move around like I used to, when, as I was leaving her office, I noticed UT’s LIFESTAR helicopter was sitting on the pad near the Harriman Hospital. The turbo engines were whining at idle speed, and the big blades rotated flatly, as it waited for the arrival of a patient to be taken to Knoxville for intensive care at the university hospital.
The ambulance arrived and the back doors swung open and a flurry of local and LIFESTAR paramedics swarmed around a gurney carrying a very large man. The medics hustled the man to and on board the aeromedical transport. Moments later the chopper, ran up its engines, tilted the rotators, lifted off, circled the hospital, and turned east.
No matter where I am, usually on my back porch on a Friday or Saturday evening, the familiar approaching thumping, which still brings Vietnam back to mind, causes me to pause and say a silent prayer for those on board and the family waiting anxiously for help. It is all we can do – it is out of our hands.
I left the doctor’s parking lot, saying my humble little prayer, and feeling quite blessed.
Proverb goes something like “I used to cry because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”Yep, that’s right, a lot of cultures lay claim to that quote. I discovered this today as I tried to track down the source.
Why? Well, I was at my family doctor’s this morning, feeling a little low from not being able to move around like I used to, when, as I was leaving her office, I noticed UT’s LIFESTAR helicopter was sitting on the pad near the Harriman Hospital. The turbo engines were whining at idle speed, and the big blades rotated flatly, as it waited for the arrival of a patient to be taken to Knoxville for intensive care at the university hospital.
The ambulance arrived and the back doors swung open and a flurry of local and LIFESTAR paramedics swarmed around a gurney carrying a very large man. The medics hustled the man to and on board the aeromedical transport. Moments later the chopper, ran up its engines, tilted the rotators, lifted off, circled the hospital, and turned east.
No matter where I am, usually on my back porch on a Friday or Saturday evening, the familiar approaching thumping, which still brings Vietnam back to mind, causes me to pause and say a silent prayer for those on board and the family waiting anxiously for help. It is all we can do – it is out of our hands.
I left the doctor’s parking lot, saying my humble little prayer, and feeling quite blessed.
