There’s a Filipino word:
bayanihan
(buy-uh-nee-hun)
which roughly translates to a spirit of helping your
community without expecting anything in return.
Bayanihan:
also the word used to describe the tradition of
neighbors coming together to move a family’s nipa
hut from one place to another.
In this way,
life is carried on the shoulders of the community.
A nipa hut, or bahay kubo, is a native Filipino house
made of wood, bamboo, and nipa grass.
In bayanihan, the bahay kubo is uprooted using
bamboo poles, hoisted onto the shoulders of 20 or
more people, and moved to a new location.
The bahay kubo being carried often also contains
the family’s belongings and even family members
incapable of making the trek.
The community moves as a single group, all vital
parts of the same journey.
All equally contributing to accomplish the goal.
Life is carried on the shoulders of the community.
I think of the practice of medicine as its own
bayanihan.
Consider the burdens, which the patient’s
shoulders alone cannot bear.
The burden of sickness, the burden of stress.
The burden of finances, the burden of emotion.
The burden of the future: not knowing, knowing too
much.
The burden of a life that did not unfold according to
plan.
These burdens that need a community’s shoulders
too.
Life is carried on the shoulders of the community.
We are the community.
Family members, loved ones, friends,
Physicians, nurses, pharmacists,
Practitioners, technicians, assistants,
Administrative teams, social workers, dieticians,
Volunteers, sanitation services, maintenance
engineers,
And countless others more who come together
because
life is carried on the shoulders of the community.
What is our role as physicians in this bayanihan?
We enter a patient’s life as one member of this
community.
Our work, our training, our struggles, our rewards
all giving us the strength to take a step forward,
difficult as it may be,
To take the patient’s bahay kubo one step further,
wherever that may lead.
Life is carried on the shoulders of the community.
We fall in line, we grip the bamboo pole, we make
the trek and shoulder the haul.
We don’t let the patient carry their bahay kubo all
on their own.
The bahay kubo that holds burdens.
The bahay kubo that holds a precious, shining, and
full life.
As my ancestors carried the lives of their neighbors
on their shoulders,
I, too, will carry the lives of my neighbors on my
shoulders.
What a privilege to be part of a bayanihan, where
life is carried on the shoulders of the community.
