Curiosity, discipline, and joy; and the greatest of these is joy.

摘要

THE house lights go down, you settle in your seat, and the theater quiets to murmurs of anticipation. The stage lights go up, and, after brief introductions, out walk three men who have shaped our specialty and who continue to shape it. Their names-Severinghaus, Miller, and Shafer-are familiar to most of us as inventors, textbook writers, and researchers, but we are probably a little vague on the specifics. Then they begin telling us their stories, and, for a while, we understand their ideas and how they apply to each of us and to our specialty. For the first time, Anesthesiology presents to you articles based on the three primary lectures of the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists: the Emery A. Rovenstine Lecture, the John W. Severinghaus Lecture on Translational Science, and the Honorary Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Research Lecture. You can view the two former lectures at http://2008highlightscme.asahq.org. Unfortunately, the Honorary FAER Research Lecture was not recorded in 2008. Although these articles lack the drama of the lectures themselves, they clearly capture the ideas and the story lines behind the drama. If you were not able to attend these wonderful lectures, and even if you were, I encourage you to spend a few minutes reading these articles. These men describe who we are as professionals and the tremendous gifts our specialty has brought to medicine and to society. My goal in this editorial is to provide a brief synthesis of these ideas, in part to help frame the importance of their central messages, but mostly to peak your interest to read them.