Grace Makes Beauty out of Ugly Things

This afternoon I had the pleasure of teaching 50 doctors who are in training for General Practice. They were really bright young things, and reminded me that I was once bright and young. I don't envy them though, there's something more settling and whole about becoming more confortable with what you are and what you aren't that I'm finding a bit of with maturity.

I arrived a little early, and the building that houses the lecture theatre is truly one of the worlds ugly buildings from the outside. Squeezed in between increasingly "function is everything" fill in ward blocks and power plants, it is odd and for me lacking in charm as you approach it. The outer frame is mainly glass, a sort of hexagon drum, and inside can be seen a giant dome/igloo make of beige fibre glass. I clearly had come a bit too early as I had time to get all grumpy and miserable about it's aesthetics. When I got inside I was struck however by it being suprisingly pleasant. Housing up to 200 people in typical lecture theatre style, the dome on the inside was held together with 8 foot high pine pencils. The lines and the aesthetic whilst modern and functional were suprisingly pleasing. It calmed my grumpiness - so here is a blip of the roof.

Suitably cheered we had a 3 hours session thinking about CBT and panic and depression and I was encouraged by their quickness to learn and engage, but maybe most by the diversion we had about the notion of hope and the attitude of compassion that are such important things we bring to what we do.


"Grace makes beauty out of ugly things" U2