为什么我穿着白大褂，就说话自带权威，穿着体检服，就这么温良恭俭让了？说实在的，在背痛这件事上，我可比她在行。接受神经外科医生培训时，有一半内容都涉及脊椎的病。不过，也许真的更有可能是脊柱炎。年轻成年人得这种病的概率是挺高的。而三十多岁脊柱就生了癌？这种概率简直不会超过万分之一。就算这概率再高一百倍，还是高不过脊椎滑脱。搞不好我真的是在自己吓自己。
Why was I so authoritative in a surgeon’s coat but so meek in a patient’s gown? The truth was, I knew more about back pain than she did—half of my training as a neurosurgeon had involved disorders of the spine. But maybe a spondy was more likely. It did affect a significant percent of young adults—and cancer in the spine in your thirties? The odds of that couldn’t be more than one in ten thousand. Even if it were one hundred times more common than that, it’d still be less common than a spondy. Maybe I was just freaking myself out.

X光检查的结果没啥问题。我们把所有症状都归咎于工作太累和身体机能老化。约好了下次治疗的日程安排后，我回去处理了当天的最后一个病例。体重下降得没那么厉害了，后背的疼痛也可以忍受了。每天适量来点布洛芬止痛，也能撑过去了。还有，这种每天工作十四个小时的艰难日子也快要到头了。我马上就要从医学生变成神经外科教授了：十年无情残酷的训练都过来了，我下定决心，要把接下来的十五个月熬过去，圆满结束住院医生的生涯。我已经赢得了前辈的尊重，获得了极负盛名的全国性医学奖项，几所著名大学纷纷向我抛出橄榄枝。最近，我在斯坦福的课程主管找我谈了一次，他说：“保罗，我觉得，你不管申请什么工作，肯定都是最优秀的候选人。我就跟你说一声，我们准备找个人加入教职团队，像你这样的。当然，在这儿不能给你什么承诺。不过你应该考虑考虑。”
The X-rays looked fine. We chalked the symptoms up to hard work and an aging body, scheduled a follow-up appointment, and I went back to finish my last case of the day. The weight loss slowed, and the back pain became tolerable. A healthy dose of ibuprofen got me through the day, and after all, there weren’t that many of these grueling, fourteen-hour days left. My journey from medical student to professor of neurosurgery was almost complete: after ten years of relentless training, I was determined to persevere for the next fifteen months, until residency ended. I had earned the respect of my seniors, won prestigious national awards, and was fielding job offers from several major universities. My program director at Stanford had recently sat me down and said, “Paul, I think you’ll be the number one candidate for any job you apply for. Just as an FYI: we’ll be starting a faculty search for someone like you here. No promises, of course, but it’s something you should consider.”

三十六岁的我已经走上了人生巅峰。眼前就是一片辽阔的“应许之地”，从基列到杰利科，一直延伸到浩瀚的地中海。海上有一艘漂亮的游艇，周末的时候，我、露西，还有假想中的孩子们，驾船出海，共享天伦。可以预见，等工作强度降低，生活稍微轻松些，我的背痛也会减轻。可以预见，我终于能像此前许诺的那样，做个好丈夫了。
At age thirty-six, I had reached the mountaintop; I could see the Promised Land, from Gilead to Jericho to the Mediterranean Sea. I could see a nice catamaran on that sea that Lucy, our hypothetical children, and I would take out on weekends. I could see the tension in my back unwinding as my work schedule eased and life became more manageable. I could see myself finally becoming the husband I’d promised to be.