By Dr. Marcia Castillo
Albert Camus is a benchmark of French and universal literature, to him we owe the renewed reading of “The Plague” and “The Foreigner”. Camus had an eventful life, marked by illness and a weak childhood, however when he received the Nobel Prize for Literature the first letter he wrote was to a primary school teacher on November 19, 1957, Mr. Germain. He did not write to a friend, to a lover, but to his teacher.
It is a short but deep and reflective text that culminates by saying: “I want to offer at least the opportunity to tell you what you have been and still are for me, and I can assure you that your efforts, your work and the generous heart that you put they always continue to be alive in one of his little disciples, who, despite the years, has not ceased to be his grateful student.
José Silié a generous teacher
That April 11, La Lira Park was full of patients with Parkinson’s, family members, doctors, and some people who happened to be there reading the newspaper or shining their shoes or trying to sell some knick-knack, but Dr. Silie wasn’t there by chance, it was invited by one of the founders of the association, and in a gallant and selfless manner, he arrived on time and stayed with us until the end of that first outing. I remember well what he told me “don’t get tired along the way, it’s not easy but we need more of this”.
It’s been 14 years since Parkinson’s patients began to have a voice and we don’t get tired even if we stumble. Like Mr. Germain, his words are still alive when tiredness stalks us.
José Silié the lover of good conversation and the brilliance of words
Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the philosophers who has reflected the most on languages and their inextricable relationship with human thought. Undoubtedly one of his best known phrases is: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” How far would the world of Dr. Silié go? The answer is undoubtedly an infinite world from east to west, from zenith to nadir, attest to this in his writings where he shines and dazzles with colorful landscapes, the city and its people, the people and their things, reading it was like conversing with him, conversing with him was opening a window onto the vastness of the world.
Dr. José Silié: a doctor with 3 H.
William Osler is known as the father of modern medicine, he recovered the research spirit in students, he encouraged scientific publications and to resume the humanistic spirit of medicine, but he was also known as a great aphorist, I would like to rescue one of them in particular: “The most renowned doctor he has must dress in the three H’s, Humility, Humor and Humanity”.
Three qualities that were standard bearers of Dr. Silié’s medical practice. Gallant but without poses, funny but respectful, humanist, and here there is no but. With Dr. Osler’s permission, I would like to add another H, Honesty, another virtue that adorns the trajectory of this neuroscientist, honest in how he acted, how he thought and how he spoke. A doctor with 4H and forgive the mistake.
A friend who taught me to be wrong
In the story “El maestro” by the great Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, he recounts a very special and well-attended contest at the request of an incomparable teacher. It is a short but forceful story that closes like an ax blow: “The contest was won by everyone and for each winner there was an ovation, a shower of streamers and a medal donated by the neighborhood jeweler. Later, the teacher Oscar told me: -We feel so united that it makes me want to leave them all repeaters. And one of the students, who had come to the capital from a town lost in the countryside, stayed chatting with me. She told me that before, she didn’t speak a word, and laughing, she explained that the problem was that now she couldn’t keep quiet. And she told me that she loved the teacher, she loved him very much, because he had taught her to lose her fear of being wrong.
Master, doctor, friend, we cannot say goodbye to you because you spoke to us and we spoke to you and only great men know how to listen to the voice of the wind and turn it into a song. Gibran Jalil Gibran “thanks for the singing”.
Doctor José Silié, doctor, teacher and curator of the word – DiarioSalud.do