"AIDS simply did not fit into this picture we had of our town. The TV stations and the Johnson City Press did a fine job of parroting what the wire services carried about AIDS. But they never succeeded in treating the deaths of Rock Hudson or Liberace as being any more significant to our town than famine in the Sahel or a plane crash in Thailand. You could shop in the mall, cut your hair in Parks & Belk, pick up your milk in the Piggly Wiggly, bowl at Holiday Lanes, find bawdy entertainment at the Hourglass Lounge-and never know that one of my patients was seated right next to you, or brushing past you in the parking lot, a deadly virus in his or her body that was no threat to you, but might nevertheless cause you to stand up and scream if you knew how close it was.
My problem was the opposite: I saw AIDS everywhere in the fabric of the town; I wanted to pick up the megaphone as I stood in the checkout line and say, "ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS: JOHNSON CITY IS A PART OF AMERICA AND, YES, WE DO HAVE AIDS HERE." ~ Abraham Verghese, My Own Country, A Doctor's Story, p 166
Life in a small town with a large family. Trying to put God on display.
2 comments:
I think I need to read this book. You are always a few books ahead of me!
So true, its everywhere, but the minute people know that act strange, at least many people do. So much more educating to do.
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