“At all,” the physician affirmed, but added cautiously, “I’m afraid the problem may be more serious.” Then he laughed. “Though it’s not a case which can be exaggerated to double the fees!”

Omar laughed while looking at him expectantly.

“Well, then,” the doctor stressed, “you should know that it’s nothing but…”

Omar asked uneasily, “Is the psychiatric ward my fate, then?”

“Neither a psychiatric nor any other kind of ward.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You’ve got a bourgeois disease, if I may use the term our newspapers are so fond of. You’re not sick,” he continued more slowly, “but I see the first signs of something more than a disease. You’ve come at the appropriate time. When did the lethargy appear?”

“Two months ago, perhaps a bit earlier, but for the last month it’s been agonizing.”

“Let me describe your life as I see it. You’re a successful, wealthy man. You’ve virtually forgotten how to walk. You eat the best food, drink good wine, and have overburdened yourself with work to the point of exhaustion. Your mind is preoccupied with your clients’ cases and your own holdings. Anxiety about the future of your work and your financial situation has got the better of you.”

Omar gave a slight laugh and said, “That’s the picture, in general, but now I’ve lost interest in everything.”

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with you for the time being, but the enemy lurks on the border.”

“Like Israel?”

“And if we don’t take care, serious danger may overwhelm us.”

“We’re getting to the point.”

“Be moderate in your eating, drink less, stick to regular exercise such as walking, and there’ll be no grounds for fear.”

Omar waited, thinking, but the doctor said no more. “Aren’t you going to write me a prescription?”

“No. You’re not a villager who needs a superfluous prescription to be convinced of my importance. The real cure is in your hands alone.”

“I’ll be my old self again?”

“And better…In spite of my heavy load of work at the university and the hospital and clinic, I walk every day for at least a half hour and I watch my diet.”

“I’ve never felt the advance of years.”

“Old age is a disease which you won’t feel as long as you follow a sensible regime. There are youths of over sixty. The important thing is to understand life.”

“To understand life?”

“I’m not speaking philosophically, of course.”

“But your treatment of me is based on some sort of philosophy. Hasn’t it ever occurred to you to question the meaning of your life?”

The physician laughed loudly and said, “I have no time for that. As long as I serve those in need each hour, what meaning does the question have?” Then he advised, with friendly concern, “Take a vacation.”