I give you this personal sketch because it is the best I can do to illustrate what care-giving entails, and why it is so crucial to everyone’s life – and to the human condition more generally. Care-giving, as illustrated by our case, includes what happens when hope and consolation are abandoned, when theodicy ends, and when all there is to do is to be present with the sufferer, sharing his or her suffering by simply – and usually silently – being there.
我举出这个个人例子，是因为这是我能用来说明病人照护包含什么以及它对每个人的生活——更通常地说，对人的境况——如此重要的原因的最好途径。正如我们的情况所表明的那样，病人照护包括，在希望和安慰都被放弃，神正论也结束了的时候，人们要做的事情就是和饱受疾病煎熬的人在一起，在他们身边——通常是安静地陪在他们身边——分担他或她的痛苦。