Frankly, it was hard for me to keep my composure. As he walked across the stage and I focused the camera, I realized that Ben had chosen to wear a tie that I gave him in high school. It was a tie that my father wore and gave me when I set off to become a page in Congress at age 15 — roughly five decades ago. It was threadbare and faded at points. However, it was a brilliant reminder of how he got there and who he was. We are all the sum total of everyone who came before us. Ben wanted me to know that he had not forgotten.
Yet, at that moment I knew (as I have always known) that Ben was more than a brilliant researcher with medical publications on opioid and addiction (including one published this week). He is something far more important in this world. He is a truly good man. He is everything that you would want in a doctor. He is caring and calm; intelligent and empathic. Most importantly, he is humble and thankful.
It is one of those moments you wanted but feared to come. He was setting out and you had to let go. For each parent, even in a packed hall, you were alone with a flood of memories of actual to experiential first steps that brought him to this place. He is his own man and we could no longer hover behind him to catch him any more than we could walk across that stage with him. Perhaps that is why he wore the tie. He wanted to show that he was taking part of us with him. A tie, a bond, that would continue to hold us as one.
My emotions were shared by every parent in that hall as they watched their own children don their white coats. They came from countries around the world but our emotions and experiences were strikingly similar. Passing smiles and glances confirmed all that you needed to know. The mix of unbridled pride with a longing to hold onto this moment; to hold on to the kid who just yesterday seemed to be taking his first unsteady and awe-struck steps into an unknown world.
After being “coated,” we watched them take the Hippocratic Oath. In celebration of their diversity, the students then took turns reading lines from the oath in over a dozen native languages. Spoken in Korean, Turkish, Hindi, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Farsi, Hebrew, Urdu, Arabic and many languages, it reminded them of a bond to each other as healers.
The oath itself has always intrigued me. We are all familiar with the “do no harm” tenet. However, the oath has changed dramatically over the years. The original oath had references to ancient Gods and some startling lines. It began with “I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius the surgeon, likewise Hygeia and Panacea, and call all the gods and goddesses to witness, that I will observe and keep this underwritten oath, to the utmost of my power and judgment.”
It also included this obligation:
“Whatsoever house I may enter, my visit shall be for the convenience and advantage of the patient; and I will willingly refrain from doing any injury or wrong from falsehood, and (in an especial manner) from acts of an amorous nature, whatever may be the rank of those who it may be my duty to cure, whether mistress or servant, bond or free.”
The modern oath used by Georgetown still has portions that I especially like, particularly where the students must swear to not only respect and admire their professors but support them financially if needed. That is something we need to add to the oath for our law school graduations.
The students will all start on Monday morning in a long haul to earn their “long white coats.” The former dean of the medical school, Stephen Mitchell, told the students that they are all likely wondering how they made it through the brutal selection process for medical school. With over 16,000 applicants, these roughly 200 students had made the cut and some may have their self doubts. Yet, he observed, with a nod to Harry Potter, that “you do not choose the white coat, the white coat chooses you.” Perhaps, but each of these future doctors came to this moment as a result of everything and everyone that came before them. That is why that was more than just an old, faded tie.
Congratulations Class of 2027.
