Parable of the Dangerous Cliff

One of the classes I'm taking this semseter is called Family & Community Nursing. I have to say, it is a class that I'm finding very interesting, more so than some other classes I've had. I guess it's because I'm able to see the resemblance it has with EMS, specifically, getting out into the neighborhood, and not just working in the Nth floor of some hospital.

Now I'm not much of a poetry fanatic, but this caught my eye. It was in my textbook for the Family & Community Nursing class. One of the foci of this class is teaching people healthy practices, how to prevent injuries or acute exhacerbations of their already existing illnesses that they could have avoided by seeking healthcare earlier. Anyway, enjoy:

Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant;
But over its terrible edge there has slipped
A duke, and full many a peasant.
The people said something would have to be done
But their projects did not at all tally.
Some said, "Put a fence around the edge of the cliff";
Some, "an ambulance down in the valley."
The lament of the crowd was profound and was loud,
As their hearts overflowed with their pity;
But the cry of the ambulance carried the day
As it spread through the neighboring city.
A collection was made to accumulate aid
And the dwellers in highway and alley
Gave dollars or cents
Not to furnish the fence
But "an ambulance down in the valley."
"For the cliff is all right if you're careful," they said.
And if folks ever slip and are dropping,
It isn't the slipping that hurts them so much
As the shock down below when they're stopping."
So for years (we have heard), as these mishaps occurred,
Quick forth the rescuers sally,
To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,
With the ambulance down in the valley.
Said one in his plea, "It's a marvel to me
That you'd give so much greater attention
To repairing results than to curing the cause;
You had much better aim at prevention.
For the mischief, of coure, should be stopped at its source,
Come neighbors and friends, let us rally.
It is far better sense to rely on a fence
Than an ambulance down in the valley."
He is wrong in his head," the majority said;
"He would end all our earnest endeavor.
He's a man who would shirk this responsible work,
But we will support it forever.
Aren't we picking up all, just as fast as they fall,
and giving them care liberally?
A superfluous fence is of no consequence,
If the ambulance works in the valley."
The story looks queer as we've written it here,
But things oft occur that are stranger.
More humane, we assert, than to care for the hurt
Is a plan for removing the danger.
The very best plan is to safegaurd the man,
And attend to the thing rationally;
To build up the fence and try to dispense
With the ambulance down in the valley.
Better still! Cut down the hill!

-Author Unknown

Click Here for a link to the electronic version of the textbook I got this from.

Author Unknown (2005). The Parable of the Dangerous Cliff. In Allender, J. A., & Spradley, B. W., Community health nursing: promoting and protecting the public's health (p. 16) Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins