Conversation: Eve vs Doctor

"What is duty then?" The doctor finally wound up asking Eve.

"It's doing what we don't want to to: it's the burden that all share, but some refuse to recognize." She replied easily, but missing none of her usual vigor or vinegar.

"I don't agree." The doctor started to say.

"Of course you don't." Eve butted in.

"I think it is much more than that." The doctor finished quietly.

"You've got milk for blood. What do you know?" She sniffed indelicately.

"It must be! Consider the lilies of the field; do they have a duty to grow, to push through the hard rocky soil to thrive and to eventually flower and die?"

"Empty comparison, Garden has no rocky soil, everything thrives here."

"Forget your empty semantics and look at the pure theory then. Duty must answer that question of the lilies. Duty does not just simply refer to the simple action, it is the reason behind the action as well as the action."

Eve's only reply was to sniff.

"You say would do, "right and good" at all costs. Why? Is your duty to do so? Suppose in your quest of doing, "right and good" you faced against someone who opposed you while doing that they thought, "right and good?"

"Where does that get you?"

"There must be a right and wrong definition of duty."

She glared.

"And yours is wrong."

"Why then what do you think it is?" She cried instantly, irritated and a little peeved.

"It is the stringent following of goodness for the sake of the good. Notice I did not use the words: "right and wrong," I used the word: "good." I think that when stressed enough, that definition would hold water to any argument."

"I could just substitute...." She started angrily.

"You could not! Not in your scenario." The doctor interrupted. "You must know what is "right." To that end, you face too many questions in your argument to know.
Now in my pursuit of doing my duty, I face no such questions. I am a doctor. My duty is to keep a person from harm, even when I might hurt them a little in the process."

They both stared at one another.

"You might wear a mask in your pursuit of doing "right," Eve, so that the question of "what is right," never be traced back to you, but I don't have to.
I merely close their eyes with ether so that, while I pursue my duty of doing, "good," I may hide in their own ambiguous shadows."

He smiled and started eating again. She growled something unintelligible under her breath at him.

"We are talking of apples and oranges Doctor," She said. "I am speaking of socio-economic ties and you are speaking quite literally or apples."

"Quite so, Quite so, Dear Eve. But are you trying to tell me that my comparison doesn't do any justice to what you are trying to say and they both have a lapse?"

"Now you're being too simple, Doctor!" She cried sensing an opening.

"I speak of a person, you speak of a city or nation of people. How much different can they be? The sum is utterly different from its parts?"

She bit her lip and remained silent.

They both smiled then and returned to eating. Soon another discussion started, and this night joined all the others in which they had shared repast and discussed what was on their minds.