Sunday, October 12, 2014

West Point and Medicine: Duty, Honor, Doctor

As a West Point graduate, I have applied learnings from the Academy during my career as a Family Physician.

Duty, Honor, Country.  The motto of West Point resonates in my brain and challenges my heart frequently. What is my Duty?  What is the Honorable thing to do, or not do?  How do I best serve my Country?

When I ask myself these questions, I often refer to the Cadet Prayer for clarification and connection to God.

"O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth.  May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.

Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretence ever to diminish.  Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life.  Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.  Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy.  Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life.  Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service.  Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of a cheerful countenance, and soften our hearts with sympathy for those who sorrow and suffer.  Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point in doing our duty to Thee and to our Country.  all of which we ask in the name of the Great Friend and Master of all."

This post is an introduction to a series of posts titled "Duty, Honor, Doctor."  


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