No introduction required for there was
an occasion many years ago when his
professional expertise came to the aid
of my dilemma. He is a kindly, avuncular
man, a distinct credit to his healing
profession and fate has placed us once
again in a partnership of the healing arts.
His smile is generous his expertise beyond
question, a man schooled in the ills that
befall that most delicate of vital organs
with which we identify the world around us.
The examination is thorough the prognosis
of surgical intervention assured and we
move on to recommendation and scheduling.
He is prepared once again to operate on my
ageing eyes, to grant me with his assured
proficiency a return to clarity and acute vision.
But while I have aged, so has this skillful man.
And I must consider: do I entrust the outcome
of such an operation on my precious eyes to
someone so advanced in age, well beyond
the official timescale of recognized retirement
for he has been transformed to a confident
yet feeble elder, shrunken and deeply wrinkled
white-haired and stooped. Ten years his senior
I have the appearance of one decades younger
than he. The dilemma of declining his services
and the potential of offering an indignity to his
ego, balanced against mine of self-preservation.
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