Diversions

A wife & daughter laugh @ their husband/Dad for his loud ringtone when his phone rings. Then he gets the last laugh when the caller is the daughter’s husband who has tried to call her 3 times. She didn’t know her phone was on silent…

The fish in the nearby tank recognize the guy who feeds them and swarm up to one side of the tank & to the top when he shows up to feed them. Not a small number of folks watch and smile. Then they just watch the fish swim around & eat after he leaves.

A 40-ish lady works through her Sudoku book.

A lady in her mid-20s makes necklaces & bracelets while waiting on her husband.

Two senior adult guys discuss their respective Navy service—one a career, the other a hitch—all prompted by one of the guys’ “Retired Navy” hat. The entire, wonderful conversation starts with “what year?” (meaning “what you did you retire)

The guy in the Navy hat chats with another senior adult guy of a different race. This other guy is wearing a “Tuskegee Airmen” shirt. The Navy hat guy offers his hand and says “I know several of the Airmen; let me shake your hand, sir.” (Aside: we’re constantly told that folks down here are still hard-core racists. Occurrences like the one describe here are not surprising to us natives; neither are they very well reported. Stereotypes die hard, I suppose…and can apparently still be used to justify column inches…)

A 60-ish grandma-looking lady knits. (aside: Is knitting a lost art? It sure seems so…)

These 2 little girls laugh & have a great time putting a puzzle together. They giggle, share jokes & snide comments, and fuss at each other’s puzzle-assembling skills. The younger of the 2 little girls is 18. The other one is her Mother. Both are dearly loved by and related to me.

All of these events happen in the CT Imaging waiting area of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Every person here would rather be somewhere else. Everyone walking through the doors to get a CT scan is in some stage of cancer diagnosis/treatment. Everyone left in the waiting area loves someone who walks through those doors. There is a huge, largely-unmentioned fear in this room that we all try to deny in hopes that it will go away. But it never does so. Not completely, anyway.

The diversions noted above help…For a few moments, one’s thoughts are focused elsewhere than on medical test results. Or on the prognosis for the future. Or on memories from the last time. Or on the vivid reality of a loved one who is back behind those doors and all that the test results could entail.

Diversions. We all thank God for them in a place like this. And He graciously grants them...