You Just Might Find You Get What You Need

Yesterday was a crummy day, full of being cursed, screamed at, having fists raised at. Then I had a long, dark, rainy drive home, and finally a really rotten night.

This morning I needed something good, and it appeared. The only radio station worth listening to—a local, underpowered, semi-public university station—usually only reaches halfway through my hour-long commute north. But today, due to whatever sort of atmospherics, it stuck it out all the way to the interstate exit. Live Elvis Costello. A “deep cut” from London Calling. Some kind of instrumental surf-grunge guitar piece related to a particle accelerator at Stanford. A 10-minute-long extended remix of a The The song (on vinyl). And so on.

Then, at GA, the ward clerk delivered me a formally enveloped and addressed Christmas card. It was from a patient on a different ward, with whom I’d worked some years ago. He is arguably the smartest person in the hospital, medical staff included, but seems to have virtually no connection with the real world, let alone connection with real people. So I was shocked to read the handwritten message: “May your love and goodness be forever thine aid in times of trouble, and your support as you travel through life, giving love and help.” I still cannot quite reconcile the writer with the writing. I think it will be the best Christmas present I get this year.