According to New York State law, the home-bound are entitled to an education. A special education teacher related to me that she tended to a profoundly handicapped girl who, due to a rare congenital defect, was missing a portion of her brain. The woman attempted to teach this nine-year-old girl, who lived in a crib festooned with toys that she would never appreciate, motor control. If this girl would just raise a pinky, it would be a miracle.
After a year of employment the teacher finally had a chance to meet the girl’s father. The man came home from work one day, marched over to the crib and lifted up and hugged his daughter. And this is what the teacher said to me: “Children are naturally soft, pliable and cuddly; but this girl was stiff and rigid. The man kissed her affectionately – and then commented without any irony at all, ‘What do you say about our treasure? After 14 miscarriages, look what God has blessed us with!’”
The man was truly appreciative, and this gives one pause. After reading a story like this you go home and discover one of your children coloring on the wallpaper… and you wish to hug them!
It is rare to focus on what we are blessed with. Recognition of a blessing usually occurs only after its absence. Break a leg and the gift of being able to walk painlessly – a matter taken fully for granted – is craved. An eye infection affords profound meaning to the miracle of sight.
If someone were to lose his or her spouse, then all of the “monumental” issues about which the couple argued would seem laughably trite. A man who loses his devoted wife will be filled with remorse over how many times he chided her to squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom of the tube and not from the middle. Now he would give anything to have her back and squeeze the toothpaste all day long from the top and never recap – just that she should be here!
(To be continued) Chodesh Tov – have a pleasant month!
[1] It is a fact that scores of women die in the United States every year from complications associated with Anorexia Nervosa.
