"It belongs to her."

[Shrek]

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2022/05/05/aspirations/

She often seems surprised at how much time we spend discussing these personal, nonclinical elements of her decision. When she asks me, “What do you recommend?” I tell her, “There’s no real basis for a medical recommendation in this case. Any of the options I’ve presented are safe and reasonable. It’s a personal decision. It’s really up to you.”

Then I see a look in her eyes, like: You’re kidding. Up to me? Sometimes it is a look of fear, at least at first. But inevitably it transforms into something else: a deep, probing, inward gaze that shows me she is, in my presence, accessing a very private place within herself. I have not provided her access to this place—she can get there without me—but I have given her permission to enter it. To withdraw, for a moment, from me and my medical expertise, from the judgments and biases of her friends and family, from the shouts of the protesters in the parking lot. This is one of my favorite parts of my job: watching her go into that place and emerge from it with a decision—or a thoughtful question, or just a word, or yet another expression on her face, one of resolution or sadness or grief or relief. Whatever it is, it comes from within her. It belongs to her.

[brer cat]

1. K&R!!

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R