Have you ever taught a language with native speakers in your class? Or any other subject, and noticed that there was one or several people in the class who knew more about some of the stuff you were going to teach than yourself? Or students who were several decades older than yourself, like the age of your parents, with tons of life experience you were afraid they wanted to share? It’s every teacher’s and professional’s nightmare, coming in as the ‘expert’ only to find that there are people who at least look like they might be contesting your role. When that first happened to me, I was terrified. I tried double-hard to show that *I* was the expert, that *I* knew everything worth knowing, I filled the powerpoint slides with (mostly useless) facts, and tried to show off so that immediately see that they could only loose should they even dream of taking me on in my role as the expert teacher or professional. – Now, today, being older and wiser, I enjoy teaching people who know a lot, because I see it as an opportunity to learn more myself. What surprised me a lot was how much the ‘expert’ students enjoyed sharing their experience and knowledge with their fellow-students and with myself. They never thought about challenging me as the ‘teacher’. Over the past (almost) eleven months, I have practically lived in ICUs and in hospitals, four of them, in three different countries and on two continents. And after all that time, and all these places, I feel that I know a bit about Pádraig’s care. Above all, I know the patient, Pádraig, better than any nurse, therapist or doctor. Today was one of these days, when I realised that even when you know a lot, you can always learn more. When we left last night, we were worried. Pádraig’s ‘Werte’ were not so good, his heartbeat up high, his temperature had gone up, and he was struggling with the oxygen supply – could have been signs of an imminent infection. Today, when we arrived, everything had returned to ‘normal’. Even better, he was breathing by himself, no extra oxygen supply. And then his nurse asked whether we wanted to hug Pádraig, giving him abrazos fuertes – instead of faking this feeling with soft (but essentially ‘dead’) constructions of cushions and blankets around him. The idea was to make him feel really comfortable and protected. You would not believe the effect this had on Pádraig. He completely relaxed, his heart beat went really low, he managed to breathe without added oxygen all afternoon, and he looked like he was really enjoying this feeling of closeness. I very much doubt that this ‘therapy’ is part of ‘what the doctor ordered’. But it worked wonders. As does the ‘Blasentee’ which they give him instead of water, to keep his bladder working ok. – Just two examples of real good care. Much beyond, I would suspect, of what traditional doctors would proscribe and what streamlined healthcare systems would recommend. A good day all around. Today’s German Music TipMax Herre feat. Philipp Poisel, Wolke 7What’s hot Abrazos fuertes What’s cold Abstand The German word/phrase/verse of the day Drei Dinge helfen, die Mühseligkeiten des Lebens zu tragen: Die Hoffnung, der Schlaf und das Lachen. (I. Kant)