– When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi.
‘I studied literature and philosophy to understand what makes life meaningful, studied neuroscience and worked in an fMRI lab to understand how the brain could give rise to an organ capable of finding meaning in the world…’.
I went into this book blind, not knowing what to expect. It ended up resonating with me more than I had anticipated. This quote opened my eyes to the fact that everything I’d been drawn to; science, books, medicine, stories, might just be different ways of asking the same question. There is something almost paradoxical about using the brain to study the brain.
It’s fascinating that a bunch of cells and electrical impulses can: fall in love, grieve, create art, search for God, and spend an entire lifetime trying to understand itself. I’ve naturally seen humanities and science as opposites because one is based on opinions and the other is black and white, respectively. But Kalanithi highlights that they may be more similar than one would’ve thought. He sees literature and philosophy as understanding the ‘why’ humans search for meaning, and science as ‘how’ humans search for meaning.
To me, medicine is the bridge between them both. Medicine is science. Medicine is also suffering, hope, grief, identity, love, fear, and purpose. I’m not sure if we’ll ever truly know how our brains work, or why they work the way they do; but it will never not be interesting to try and figure out. And hey, we may be closer to the answer than we think.
I’m yet to even finish the book so it’s likely more questions will arise as I go on, and here I shall empty out my brain (take a shot for every time I’ve said brain in this post). I’m interested to know what your perspective on this may be, feel free to let me know 🙂
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