Christmas Day - 2008

I have not had many opportunities to write during the past month. In fact, other than answering the few comments that have managed to get through to me, it has been since Thanksgiving that I have placed a new post. It has not just been a hectic couple of months, but almost a whole year as a result of the time commitment I have had to make to functioning as interim Chair of our department. I have gotten much grayer, gained 10 pounds I did not need, and all but forgotten the names of my children. My how time flies when you’re having fun! The many administrative responsibilities have sharply cut into my patient care activities at home and drained my creative energies for contributions here, even more than I had anticipated they would.

Above all, I have missed the regular research and writing and the interactions we have shared through your many thoughtful questions. However, I am also looking forward to getting back into the routine again soon because a new Chair has accepted the position and is scheduled to start some time in February! I was going to begin a new series today on Multiple Gestations and could not believe after reviewing my work here that I had not addressed this more thoroughly in the past. But it is Christmas and I just realized that today’s post will be the 300th I have contributed to this site! So the twins will just have to wait! Please indulge me while I wax reflective for a few moments…

Yesterday, I mentioned to several of my close friends how much I love this holiday. But, more than Christmas day itself, Christmas EVE has always had a special place in my heart as the most magical day of the year. I am not exactly sure why that is, but it seems that many of the cherished childhood memories which have stayed with me until now were born on Christmas Eve. It was so much more than the anticipation associated with “visions of sugar plums” dancing in our heads although I am sure those have contributed to the aura of the holiday. On Christmas Eve, we would always go to pick up my grandmother so that she could spend a few days with us. My grandmother was a remarkable woman who not only made sure my parents could put a special present under the tree each year, but also could complete the New York Times crossword puzzle faster than anyone else I knew. She was a bundle of energy who remained active until the day she died at age 96. Shortly before she died, she took me aside one day with a glint in her eye and said, “Kenneth, I want to tell you the secret to a long and healthy life – it’s GARLIC.” She was a gem!

Christmas Eve was also the night of the special ‘Candlelight Service’ at church. We moved to New Jersey from Brooklyn, New York with the mass migration to the suburbs in the 1950’s just before I started first grade. We joined a small Methodist church in Bound Brook, New Jersey shortly after our arrival and the small group of other children I met there became my closest friends. On Christmas Eve, all of us would sit together in the balcony of the church, dressed for the cold, sharing the limited space, enjoying the comfort and warmth of the physical closeness, and singing carols. As the midnight hour approached, the lights were turned off and then the church slowly brightened as the candles were lit, person by person, throughout the church while we sang Silent Night. To this day, I can picture the glistening in my best friend Deb’s eyes and the wetness on my own cheeks by the time the benediction was spoken. It was something I looked forward to every year. It was a time of sharing and anticipation, but even more so, of hope.

I have come to understand over time that regardless of your religious beliefs, the child whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day did walk the earth and did provide us with an algorithm for surviving our own short-comings as human beings. The message that he provided was not that which was expected by his disciples during a very tumultuous time in history when many of them yearned for a strong military leader. But, as they soon discovered, the impact it had was contagious and the message is as powerful and relevant today as it was at the time it was delivered. ‘Doing unto others as we would have others do unto us’ is ingenious in its simplicity, still eludes most of us in its implementation, but it is the key to achieving a lasting ‘Peace on Earth’ and good will, common respect, and understanding among all its inhabitants. I for one so pray that I live to see the day that is realized.

Happy holidays to all and blessings for the year to come!

Dr T