My friend, Dr. Robert Fisch, often reflects on his life by remembering an old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Dr. Fisch’s “curse” included living amid the “interesting times” of the Holocaust, Soviet oppression, and the clinical challenges of working as a pediatrician with children presenting with the devastating disease of phenylketonuria (PKU). However, part of Dr. Fisch’s story includes rising to these challenges of his time. He resisted the Holocaust and Soviet oppression, and he found a way to help treat PKU. In these ways, Dr. Fisch ultimately contributed to a more humane and just world.
Dr. Fisch with my family, December, 2011
" data-orig-size="3456,2592" data-image-title="Dr. Fisch with my family, December, 2011" data-orig-file="https://thequestforagoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/january-2012-003.jpg" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.2","credit":"","camera":"Canon PowerShot SX110 IS","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1322756114","copyright":"","focal_length":"9.1","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.125","title":""}" data-medium-file="https://thequestforagoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/january-2012-003.jpg?w=300" data-permalink="https://thequestforagoodlife.com/2012/03/26/my-personal-exploration-of-the-holocaust-13/january-2012-003/" alt="" class="wp-image-1403" data-large-file="https://thequestforagoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/january-2012-003.jpg?w=625" />Dr. Fisch with my family, December, 2011The past two years have clearly been “interesting” and maybe feel “cursed” as well. COVID impacted every facet of our lives from early 2020 to Spring of 2021. Racial tensions became more evident with the murder of George Floyd and the racial reckoning that followed. Political polarization drove people apart and contributed to an insurrection on our democracy on January 6, 2021. And, now, within a matter of days, we’re learning we face a “different virus,” to quote Dr. Anthony Fauci, that has the potential to upend life again. Finally, we’ve faced a heat, drought, and regular bout of air quality alerts that awakens us, if we haven’t been awakened before, to the reality of climate change in my state of Minnesota.
These are historic challenges. I can imagine a day when my children or grandchildren may look back at these times we’re living in at this time as if they presented a set of forks in the road. “We the people” and we individuals each have choices to make about what futures we will create, the sides of history on which we will stand. As Dr. Fisch has said:
“Yesterday is past. Tomorrow is a wish. Today is the only time in which to do something.”