Same Reassurances

I caught myself reassuring a junior nurse today, and as the words came out of my mouth, I realized I was using the exact same phrases I’ve been typing on this blog for months. ‘It’s probably nothing.’ ‘We’ve seen worse than this.’ ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, dear.’ It worked, too. Her shoulders dropped, she took a breath, and she went back to her charts. It worked for both of us. There’s a power in the cliché; it acts like a social lubricant that keeps the gears turning when everything feels like it’s about to seize up. We tell each other these lies so we can keep standing. If we admitted we were out of our depth, we’d have to stop, and stopping isn’t an option in this building.