Walking the Wall

        Sickened by the atrocities of
violence occurring in the Tsunami
affected areas, horrified by the inundation of the media news reporting
example after  example of the depths humanity can sink to–I
decided
to  turn my focus on the power of humanity. I found this article
on Ordinary Heroes where the author asks the question:

What do ordinary heroes do when everything changes? How
is decency, love, balance and sanity restored in the face of indecent
hateful acts which have removed any sense of control we imagined we had?

She
develops it further focusing on the last of the second question–the
idea that we imagine that we have some semblance of control over our
lives, and are thrown off balance completely when we realize that we
really don’t have as much control as we might imagine. Interesting, but
my focus is on the idea of restoring balance in the face of indecent
hateful acts. There are so many heroes in the world, beyond even the
larger heroes like fire fighters, if only for every story of human
depravity the media reports on they would report on one instance of
human strength–perhaps then people would not despair of humanity in
general.
        In my own life, I can think of a few examples of people going
above and beyond the ordinary to make a positive impact–but one stands
out. My son has two rare conditions, Asphyxiating Thoracic Dystrophy,
and Chronic Severe Neutropenia. There have been incredible doctors
along the way that allowed my son to live to the age he is
today–however, Dr. Stein stands out as a hero to me. She came into our
lives six years ago when my son was eight years old and was dying. His
pneumonia was clearing up, and he should have been getting better, but
he wasn’t. He white cells were disappearing at an alarming rate and
blood transfusions weren’t working. Does he have AIDs, the doctors
speculated, Leukemia, another thought, round and round they went and
all I could hear was my son looking at his too thin legs and asking me
if he was going to die. He was eight, and he lost the immortality all
children deserve to hold onto for many years. They called Dr. Stein (an
oncologist) when they thought perhaps he had Leukemia and she grabbed
hold of my son’s life and didn’t let go. I cannot imagine the untold
hours that she spent going through every single blood test he had ever
had from the day of his birth (I cannot tell you the number of them, it
was enormous), she spent more hours sending bone marrow samples to
various doctors and hospitals around the states trying to find answers.
Through her efforts my son has not had a serious hospital stay since
that horrible time six years ago–that after an inordinate number spent
his first years of life. She put him on a medication that has
tremendously improved his quality of life, and she has done everything
possible to keep him on it and keep it being paid for ($300 a shot,
given every other day).
         I sit here and watch my son laughing at
something happening in a Pokemon cartoon–and I know that Dr. Stein is
a hero in every sense of the word. She’ll never be headline news, but
her influence, dedication, and determination show the great heights
that humanity is capable of.