Human Resiliance

15 January 2010
With all of my continuing concern for individuals around the world who are frustrated by governments and constrained by occupations, I can not help paying attention to the massive suffering taking place in Haiti.
This morning on CNN, there was a news clip that showed Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who was reporting on the medical aspects of the devastation, caring for a 15-day-old baby with a head wound.
Immediately my mind returned to a time 50 years ago when I had witnessed a doctor caring for a newborn in the tiny village of Idna just outside Hebron in Palestine. The baby had been delivered with the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck, and as the World Council of Churches doctor was in the village for the weekly "Clinic Day," relatives had summoned him to care for the mother and her newborn.
This was one of the life-changing moments as I, a naive 23-year-old, stood outside the door of the house and experienced for the first time in my life the strength that exists in the frail collection of plasma and electrical impulses that we call our human existence.
Today, seeing the care that Dr. Gupta gave to the baby in Haiti, and watching the following CNN report about the US grad student who was studying in Haiti and had lost her leg, confirmed to me - again - that hope is not a cliche, but a real and tangible part of our cosmic essence. (DE)