In these rich essays, a prominent member of the medical profession probes, with trained yet freeranging thought and feeling, the world of human aspiration and foible, suffering and ecstasy. Cutting beneath the surface (though celebrating that too), he lays bare life's vital signs and responses in what it is to be human, vulnerable, sick or well, in disarray or at peace, at zenith or nadir. The result is an astonishing wealth of nonclinical observations, musings, histories and anecdotes by a medical humanist who knows much more about us than our physiology.