Happiness in this World

My wife and I vividly remember the anesthesiologist’s statement: “You may feel a little pressure.” She spoke the word gently, as if to imply that’s how it would feel, and we believed her.  Epidural blocks, she explained, don’t numb the sacral nerve roots that deliver sensation from the pelvic floor so my wife [...]

When I was in grammar school learning about World War II, I remember thinking how grateful I was that society had finally matured to the point in the intervening years that war no longer ever broke out.   Today I can hardly remember what bizarre thought process led me to conclude that people had actually become [...]

I love what I do.  Being a doctor challenges me every day to think critically and creatively, to learn new things, and to make the vast machine that is the American medical system run smoothly.  The relationships I’ve formed provide me great power to do good:  my patients trust me like no one else in [...]

The other day I found myself thinking about what would happen if as an adult I encountered some of the children who terrorized me when I was in 7th grade (an experience I wrote about in an earlier post, Breaking Free Of The Past), wondering if I’d be able to forgive them for what they [...]

We’re all meaning-seeking creatures, rousing ourselves up out of bed on different days for different reasons—one day to pass a test, the next to help a troubled friend, the next to run errands—but always motivated to participate in each day by some kind of purpose.  But if we plumb deeply enough into our hearts, excavating down to [...]

Last week my 18 month-old son, Cruise, started Montessori preschool.  The first three days my wife and I dropped him off he cried so hard he could hardly catch his breath, his chest heaving in great racking sobs.  By the fourth day, however, we were listening to him repeat his teacher’s name every few minutes [...]

In 1979, as I was about to enter seventh grade, my parents moved our family from one suburb of Chicago to another where we soon discovered anti-Semitism ran rampant. Changing schools for any boy of thirteen is traumatic enough, but finding myself persecuted verbally and physically for belonging to a particular religion made the transition [...]

Several weeks ago, my now 15-month-old son developed a fever to 103.5 F.  Usually a champion sleeper, that night he woke several times with a frenetic look in his eyes and a jerkiness to his movements that frankly unnerved me.  The heat coming off his little febrile body almost made me start sweating myself.  He had [...]

One of my patients suffers from chronic constipation due to irritable bowel syndrome.  During the literally twenty years since she was first diagnosed, her symptom pattern has remained remarkably consistent:  she has perhaps 1-2 bowel movements per week, occasionally accompanied by some mild cramping.  Even she admits the symptoms are more a bother than a worry.  And [...]

The other day I was out walking my son in his stroller (my now constant occupation) when a homeless woman approached me asking for money.  I’d seen her before in the neighborhood many times, including behind our condominium using drugs.  I turned down her request and continued walking, to my chagrin, as if the wind [...]