Letter: After 40 years as a health care provider, I’m preparing for a new era
We live our lives in more or less distinct periods of time. Each is an era. We define each era by one or more of a few characteristics. School. Jobs. Relationships.
I left the era of school, training, if you will. I came to Steamboat Springs with my wife, Marilyn, on my 30th birthday, Oct. 3, 1982. A new era dawned for me, for us.
It is now 40 years into this life as it has evolved in this once sleepy town. As I have grown in my personal and professional life, Steamboat Springs has evolved as well. Much as we might want to stop either evolution, we are not capable of doing so to any significant degree.
I will evolve in directions you or I might predict, with an accuracy we can only guess at. A new era. I will see some relationships change, perhaps strengthening. Some may fade. We sadly have seen that some end, all too soon. It is obvious that this era will also end, perhaps changing prior, and perhaps abruptly, or not. We see the future only dimly if at all.
I intend to do some good in my new era, hopefully with more balance, emphasizing relationships more than before, enjoying my grown sons, daughters-in-law, my amazing spouse, and my kind and forgiving friends. There will be adventure. There will be the challenges that time will insist upon, perhaps not so kindly, or not. I expect to further my intellectual life, and if I am fortunate, perhaps continue to do some good in that endeavor.
I hope that I can succeed in living in a way that offers thanks to this place and the people in it, tacitly, but also with a strong voice. If I can finish my era to come having helped those I can and helped make some good things happen, that may be about as much as I can ask.
Some might note “this was a man, and this was his place,” quoting a local songwriter, extra credit for knowing who…
To my patients, my practice in Steamboat Springs will end on Jan. 1. It has been my honor and privilege to be involved in your health care. I hope you find good health and good times with good people and at least a little adventure. I will miss all of you.
Dr. Mark McCaulley
Steamboat Springs
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