Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - January 8, 2025
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
One of the most extraordinary people I have ever met has come to that by a path which, if it had been foreseeable, would have terrified anyone. It began with first-year students’ horse play in the college dorm when Mick, lying flat on his back, said "I can't get up." After some incredulity, it became clear that Mick’s neck had been broken. No observer could possibly imagine all the feelings and thoughts in all the principals: fellow students, the fellow with whom he had been wrestling, and above all in the newly disabled. Over a year was spent in specialized rehabilitation efforts but finally it was unmistakable: Mick had no feeling in hands or legs.
Various rehabilitation venues followed one another until, Mick says, one such place was more distant from family and visitors. Musing in a garden one day sitting in his electronic wheelchair, it became clear to him that he couldn't let this embitter the rest of his life. To be brief, not allowing for all the intervening anguishing questions, Mick decided in favor of -– how do we describe it? –- life, taking charge of his attitude. Unlike some peers in rehabilitation who would go on for years pursuing every new promise of a cure, Mick decided that he was going to live now. Living meant having a career, learning as much independence as possible, contributing to the world and humanity around him.
After finishing college and graduate work, he made a good living in several large cities with a lucrative professional career. But he wanted more: to come back to his alma mater and teach. A position opened: he took a substantial pay cut, moved out of the speed and vitality he loved in New York to the small college. His constant good humor, joy in life, generosity with time, have made him not just an exceptionally popular but, in the frequently heard term from students, an inspiring prof. And so . . . ?
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
