Surgeons specifically and physicians more generally are vouchsafed unique experiences. They frequently see human beings at their worst: frightened, defensive, and angry. They witness what appear to be modern miracles and not infrequently they witness death. They, too, suffer from fatigue, regret and disillusionment.

Dr. Jacobs believes himself to have been changed by such experiences over the course of thirty years as an active surgeon. He, and many like him, has become convinced that the world of science-based technological medicine underemphasizes important aspects of human life and often misses the core issues which are necessary to a life of meaning.

This book is an attempt to communicate how one surgeon has experienced in the operating room and in the clinic a pervasive but ineffable world of values and presence around him. And, should the reader find this idea to be without merit, there are many practical and mundane lessons about the humanistic side of surgery and perhaps in modern life.