Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion. We did this cervical spine surgery with my mentor for a patient on Friday and it illuminated the beauty of medicine, craft mastery and human excellence in me. It seems effortless but you have to be very careful not to paralyze the patient. You can also appreciate the accurate geometric proportions in this work of art. See, if he didn’t demand the best from himself, day in—day out, this procedure wouldn’t be possible. The patient wouldn’t have benefitted. And the same goes for us, we should overcome the gravity of our lower impulses and use our virtues to propel us to the heights of a great destiny. Yes we can. For as Aristotle said, excellence is merely a habit, and all we have to do is persist and resist. Anything we dream of is within reach.
"No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.…
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