Fall                                                                          Harvest Moon

Medicine, for all its grandeur and power, still presides at those moments when things go bad.  When a clot breaks loose and heads toward the brain.  When a portion of an inner wall opens, allowing things to move beyond their proper place.  When a child has cancer or a brother, too.

No matter how strong and how grand, medicine is not our bulwark against death.  No, it’s a bulwark against death’s timing.  So far though, and the Taoists of the Qin and Han dynasties in China tried mightily, there is no immortality.  We all end our journey, our ancientrail.

Medicine can delay death’s arrival at our door, sometimes delay it for a long time, but it can not ban death’s presence.

Especially when we seek the shelter of hospitals, most especially when we end up in hospital ICUs, medicine’s work can be tender, to the mark and in vain.  We know this in my family as my mother went into the ICU at Riley Hospital and never came out.

But, too, these are where the modern miracles occur.  I’m hoping for one for Regina.