upstate medical university center for bioethics and humanities

the healing muse

Volume 11, 2011

Distance Grid

Howard F. Stein

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After six months of long-distance planning, e-mail correspondence, and phone conversations, I met the person who organized the two-day medical conference at which I was, thanks to her efforts, an invited speaker. The intellectual, emotional, and spiritual resonance between us was instantaneous and intense. Suddenly, after two days, I was on my way back to the airport, and home half a continent away. The “grid” is a memorial to connection, separation, absence, longing, and finality. The fragmented sentence depicts my search for wholeness in the face of loss.


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Last Modified: Nov 09, 2011