The Unclad Soul

I have been fascinated with medicine since I was a boy. Somewhere along the path of middle school, I thought I might be a doctor. As a kid, I got a toy doctor’s kit one Christmas and everyone in the family was targets of my doctoring. Though, as I remember it, I think my brother Terry was the only one who actually tolerated being one of my patients. Later, in high school, I figured I wasn’t smart enough to be a doctor after all. I wasn’t any good at math or science. But as long as I can remember I wanted to help people. My grandparents were a big part of our family life. And they were a huge influence on how I saw the world. Loving, gentle, caring, I learned from them a deep compassion for others. And as they got older, I felt such tenderness for them and the increasing limits of their bodies and minds. I eventually decided to go into the ministry. And there is certainly an aspect of healing in that if one takes it seriously and is dedicated to it. I enjoyed the compassionate...

Out on the busy noisy streets Walk the dregs of humanity The homeless The addicts The creeps The hooker The gang banger The snobs The elitists The bigots The perverts The abusers The bully cops The Capitalist crooks The control freaks The compromised preachers The cheaters The lonely The wounded The broken The disabled The lost You. Me. And out on the busy noisy streets Walk the decent, the lovely The kindhearted The compassionate The dreamers The visionaries The tireless workers The aging wise The innocent young The risk takers The pioneers The gentle The funny and free The huggers The kissers The benevolent neighbor The listening physician The insightful therapist The good cops The bankers with integrity The caring authentic ministers The teachers who inspire The poets and their dazzling words The angelic babies with their piercing eyes The working moms The patient dads The adorni...

On NPR (National Public Radio) this morning they played a recording of a typical scene now where the Border Patrol is separating children from their parents.  I was in my car on my way to work. I heard babies crying, children screaming in tears. A Border officer is heard saying in Spanish, "We have an orchestra." It was a pathetic attempt to settle the distraught children terrified of being taken from their parents. The Trump administration is trying, unconvincingly, to dress the scene in quiet calm with children getting food and medicine, shelter and games. But let’s be honest. These are no substitutes for a child being taken from their parents. You can sit them in front of a circus of dancing elephants and they will still cry for their mother and father. The president is cynically blaming Democrats, or saying he’s protecting the country from the drug cartel, or whatever sort of baloney he wants to embellish, but the truth is, and please, everyone can see this, the pre...

What would a perfect world look like? I don’t know. Probably very sterile and boring. I don’t really want a perfect world. I’d be happy with just a humane one. Dictionary.com defines humane as, “characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals; especially for the suffering or distressed: acting in a manner that causes the least harm to people or animals.” When I was a boy I used to spend a few days with my paternal grandparents whom I called Nana and Granddad. They were both gentle souls, quiet, kind people. One afternoon after Nana had fixed me lunch in the kitchen and I had finished eating, I took my plate to the sink to wash it. I noticed a small spider on the window sill and asked Nana for the flyswatter so I could kill it. She said, “Oh honey, don’t hurt it. It’s not poisonous. It’s not bothering anyone. And it will eventually find its way outside.” I will never forget how at that moment I started feeling a deeper sense of compassion fo...

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy, Linus, and Charlie Brown are resting on the lawn one afternoon looking at the clouds.  Lucy speaks: “Aren't the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton. I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by.  If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations. What do you think you see, Linus?" "Well, those clouds up there look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean... that cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor...and that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen...I can see the apostle Paul standing there to one side." "Uh huh. That's very good. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?" "Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsy, but I changed my mind!”   I’m with Charlie Brown today.  I’m looking for the simple things in life.  Most of everythi...