Today at lunch, I went with my Rector to deliver Communion to someone who seems near the end of life's journey. The experience has affected me this afternoon on many levels. I am humbled to serve, sad for the man I visited, and facing a renewed consciousness of what in life is truly important. Things like "Obamacare" debates, and union and,political sniping over email are not high on this list. Helping people like this man, the people I see as a Chaplain and the people in Haiti, and in our city are. I confess I lost patience with the email today. Tonight I serve as on-call Chaplain for the first time in several weeks. I am prepared to be humbled some more if my pager sounds.
About Me
- DrBen
- I’m a 56-year-old Information Systems Manager at a major Teaching Hospital. In my other life, I'm a community activist, union officer, creative writer, Episcopal lay minister and hospital chaplain. I grew up in Glastonbury Connecticut, living there until 1986. Since then I've lived in Chicago, Boston and now California. I live in Tahoe Park, a working-class neighborhood of Sacramento in a converted Catholic Rectory with my two cats, Tiger and Muffin. For the first time in years, I am mowing the lawn, and fixing what goes wrong in an 80+year old building. I once more enjoy trips to Home Depot, and after years of living in a college town which rolls up the sidewalks at night, I enjoy being back in the hustle and bustle of a city neighborhood. In my free time, I work on restoring (and camping in) a classic VW Camper Van, bicycling writing, reading, making or listening to music. I'm a 3-time survivor on Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (also surviving a life-threatening treatment-related infection in 2005), and have been healthy since a Bone Marrow Transplant in 2001. I’m a peer counselor for cancer and BMT patients.
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