Passover 2011
It's not an easy life, travelling all the time, working long hours in an effort to essentially, "save the world" as some have described my work in developing vaccines. It has definitely changed the world as most in this generation will not or better to say, should not, experience the loss of a child to polio, measles, rubella, pertussis, etc. But as I speak, there are so many other diseases for which vaccines are not available and they are claiming the lives of thousands of children every year in third world countries. That is the focus of the work now. It's exhausting yet exhilarating as one races from the highs to the lows and back again. There are many successes but sadly there are many failures as well. It is not a perfect world and as humans we are far from perfect ourselves. The sacrifices that one has to make in their own lives to work in this industry are crushing. So it is with this in mind that I find myself preparing for Passover 2011 and I think for the first time I approach this very special holiday with an understanding that I could not have obtained if my work did not take me to distant lands where I would meet people who will never experience what we take for granted every day. People's who's lives have such little value in the overall scale of things. People that dream every day of a better life, only to find it denied to them. It is through their eyes that I can imagine the suffering, the desperations, the despondancy that my ancestors experienced. And it is through their hopes and dreams that I can taste the freedom of escaping to a new land.
A Passover Psalm
So many times I search for the answers,
Only to find that nobody knows,
Sifting through sands with wash-away hands,
Looking for hope with Kaleidoscope eyes.
Walking through life when all else are huddled,
Never to feel the wind in my hair,
Time keeps on ticking with no clocks abounding
Hearing the children's confounding sighs.
When will I sleep and rest for my soul's sake?
Letting the sweat tumble down to the ground.
Finding respite so long held denied.
Wandering along a road never ending,
Searching the stars for a destination in mind,
Just up ahead is a world awaiting,
Where days drift away to the end of my time.
