Who are these dress in white robes?

About ten years ago my unrologist sent me to radiation treatment for early stage prostate cancer. In the treatment center are several small dressing rooms where patients take off their street clothes and change into white gowns. From there patients go and sit in a small waiting room waiting to be called. In our identical white gowns, all evidence of personal identity is erased; we are bound together by our common need. I thought about Muslims making their pilgrimage to Mecca. To erase personal distinctions of wealth, position, and social standing, they are all dressed in plain white gowns to signify the equality of all befoe God. One day when I was leaving the treatment center, I met a man who looked vaguely familiar. He turned out to be the urologist who sent me to radiation treatment. Like me, he was also receiving radiation treatment, in his case for a cancer in his mouth. In our need we are all the same.