Wit

Yesterday, I went to go see a profound play on Broadway, "Wit". I'm saddened by the fact it had such a short running time . More people should be able to experience it. The basic plot line follows a highly education, but disconnected, woman through her battle with stage four ovarian cancer.

I haven't cried as much as I did during "Wit" for a long time. I cried for the people I knew who have struggled with cancer - both those who have won and lost the battle. I cried for the people I know who are lonely in deep ways. I cried for those who have to hide themselves from everyone around them, in one way or another. And I cried because so much of what the play showcased in the medical world, was my experience during CPE. Physicans and medical students who were bidding their time until better things came along, at the expense of their patients. Overworked nurses. And far too few people who had the time to explore the deep issues on peoples hearts and minds, the questions of the soul. This is why I believe the ministry of the hospital chaplain is so vital and why I support CPE.

Time and time again throughout the play I kept asking myself where is the chaplain? Where is the person to comfort the woman who knew she was dying? I found myself getting upset with the young doctor in the play - who finally came out at the end, after not honoring her DNR and calling a code, and said he say her as research, not a person. But at the time same time he also admitted that people were not his passion, research was. He was caught between what was expected and what he loved, and people just got shuffled around and displaced in the midst of that. There was also a nurse in the play. She tried to connect with the patient, but she didn't have the words for the questions of the soul. She simply was present. What a ministry that was! But she couldn't bring comfort, physical or spiritual, as the time came for the woman to die.

Death. Something that we objectify and study, instead of realizing that it is something profound that cannot be qualified or captured in words or numbers. Death. The end of life that more and more doctors try to beat, instead of embrace, even when it is clearly time. We try to outrun and outsmart death because the medical world sees it as a failure, not sometime to be welcomed, which makes the transition even harder. With so many people around you in the hospital fearing death themselves, who is the person you can discuss it with? Where was the chaplain?

This is not to say that the role is exclusive to the chaplain. I think back at Hershey's program they piloted to have nurses, residents, and doctors take abbreviated CPE classes. I hope that program can be resumed in the future. But for the time being, far too few institutions have this commitment to embracing the spiritual part of healthcare and yes, even death, on the path to wholeness, and far too few have educated chaplains trained to be with people during this time.

The other thing I took away from "Wit" was a reflection on the Psalms. The main character was a scholar of the poet, John Donne, and when she recited his poems she did it with emotion that came from understanding what he was trying to communicate, the emotion that matched her own. That's what our experience of the Psalms should be like as a church. Yet, far too often we read them in a uni-tone, without emotion, like a textbook, instead of letting them connect to our spirits. Finding a piece of literature that expresses us, that gets us, can be life transforming. When will those in the pews find this in the scriptures and embrace it for all that it is worth?