Enough is Enough

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The Delta Variant has left many in the medical community feeling frustrated, angry... and surprised at these feelings.  Are there limits to our empathy? Dr. Jay Kaplan, past president of ACEP and a national leader in physician wellness, has put just the right words to this thorny question with this new poem.  Thank you to @jaykaplanmd for sharing these words, and showing that it is OK to feel these very human emotions.

Enough Is Enough

By Jay Kaplan

I am tired

              and I am sad

                          and deep beneath the fatigue and the tears

                                      is rage

yes it is time to call it what it is

do you allow yourself to feel that fury

it pulls us down

and obstructs any lightheartedness and laughter

and even colors what gratitude we might have

             for having gotten this far

             and survived this long

the refusal to be protected

             which then puts others including us

                        at risk

             feels like

a child rejecting common sense

             because it would acquiesce to being told what to do

no sense of a common good

             it is all the primacy of me and what I want

failing to recognize that there must be a public health

             for there to be any enduring individual health and well-being

I am sad

and I am angry