Back in grade school, Mrs. Molina our Christian Living teacher always managed to scare us. It wasn't really the afro hair although my best friend Andrew still had nightmares about it but more because she would tell us that we would burn in hell if we did not follow the the teachings of Christ. She would then tell us that the way to hell is paved with sweet candies and lots of naked women. The last one was my addendum after seeing the Sistine chapel interiors. And so I would go on and not eat candies or see naked women until adolescence came and well, we know what happens there.
What I'm trying to point out is that practicing what we teach is hard. You see unlike other professionals, we literally see people and their families suffering from lets say diabetes or alcoholic liver disease. And we argue constantly to our patients about the evil effects of too much good life and we forget that we are also guilty of doing the same things. I mean I know a lot of diabetic internists who are still fond of pastries and a bunch of surgeons who can't seem to control their drinking spree.
It's hard and the sad part is that there really is no Nobel Prize or even a Ramon Magsaysay award that we get after doing what we teach.
But we do it anyway. We have to at least believe that we practice what we tell our patients.
We do it because because we owe it to ourselves to be an example to everybody. Yes, the minute we took the oath, we are automatically charged with the ambassador of goodwill title.
Getting that PRC ID is a privilege, an honor. And we should give respect to it for as long as we live.
I guess Mrs. Molina never mentioned that the path to salvation is also not as hard as I thought it would be.