This Too Shall Pass

There were a bunch of nice people waiting in the doctor's office, a long wait. A son taking care of his mom. Two old couples. One young man was a bit fidgety, commented the nice white-haired lady beside him after he went in for his appointment. In reference to the long wait, she said "this too shall pass." It struck me as an interesting thing to say, a bit serious for something as small as waiting in a doctor's office. But probably she wasn't just referring to that.

I notice a trend. He and the PCP both have Monet and lily paintings in their offices. (Another doctor has a painting in his office with the title or inscription "games we play," which is interesting....) The older man across from me told me how nice the doctor is. As I left the office, he said "good luck to you." I guess I didn't look so well.

The doctor elicited a lot of information from me although I was only going to see him for a bump on my mouth. As I was leaving, he asked how many hours I worked. So I answered normally 40 or at least 40, but that I hadn't been able to work lately because I've been so sick with fatigue. He happened to ask me if I'd been tested for Epstein-Barr virus, so I told him about the visit to Stanford infectious disease clinic, the herpes viruses testing, and HHV-6.

And then sometime before I left, he said "this too shall pass." I was kind of tired and staring blankly at the time. Only while eating dinner did I think about how interesting it was that two people had said the same phrase to me today, and I don't recall another time I've heard it. So of course, I have to look it up with Google. Apparently this is a Hebrew phrase from this story,

This too shall pass.

I don't know if the lady is Jewish, but the doctor is, since according to the lookup info he speaks Hebrew.

He commented that I had seen a few very good doctors, the PCP and the dermatologist.

Yes, everything in life is fleeting. Most needed when it involves suffering.

Strange coincidences like this make me wonder sometimes if I'm hallucinating everything. Like in "A Beautiful Mind", which I never saw but read a synopsis.