When the Homily is about Immunology

Break my heart God

As our session closed in Miami, one of the presenters said he wish to read a few statistics. Now please keep in mind, this is session composed primarily of stuffy clinical lab geeks and what happened as this "leader" of lab geeks spoke completely broadsided me.

He began to read:

"In 2006, 2.9 million people died of AIDS while 4.3 million new cases were reported. 39.5 million people live with AIDS," he paused and I could see he swallowed hard, "In 2006" he paused again his voice beginning to crack with emotion, "there were 12 million AIDS orphaned children."

He then had to step away leaving me with the impression that while he had more statistics, he could not go on. You could see him struggling to hold back tears as his colleague took over the closing remarks.

To me, it was a breath of fresh air. Too much of medical science lacks such emotional and heartfelt drive to it. In the mad world of "publish or perish" one is tempted to see many more examples of leaders seemingly seeking to make names for themselves or producing extensive CV's. It is particularly refreshing to see such feeling in laboratory scientists where we usually only see a patient's bodily fluids and are often tempted to allow ourselves to forget what we are really doing.

Moreso, I used to pray and ask God to break my heart. For my sins and my failings...and I really believe I need to say such a prayer again today: particularly given so many of my responsibilities (and my failures in performing them) as a husband and a father. I'd be amazed to cry over "dry" statistics...for now I'd just like to weep some for my children. Please?