It all started because I didn't think quick enough to say no to working a Sunday shift. First of all it was Father's Day, and second, I hadn't had a day off in eight days, but I said I would. That began a most depressing and disheartning shift, but a shift that was topped off with the miracle of renewal.
    Early on in the shift, Vallejo police brought a fifteen year old male into the hospital. The kid had been argumentative, and was about to strike another kid with a steel rod. He also started teasing the police dog, more than once, finally upsetting the dog's owner. When he was told to stop teasing the dog, he told the officer, "F... you".
The officer asked him what he said and the kid repeated, "F... you".
That was enough for the officer to grab the kid and book him downtown until his mother could come and get him.
    While the kid was being held he started to work the cuffs up on his wrist so he could say they were chafing and cutting. That earned him a trip to Kaiser for evaluation and treatment. That's how I wound up with him. He came in handcuffed and, when the officer left, the kid wore my handcuffs. He didn't want to be called a nice guy. He wanted to grow up to be an "outlaw". He didn't like anyone having authority over him. Listening to him talk reminded me of my own son, ready to turn 17. He used to talk like that, like he is in a fantasy. You can tell they're making up most of it as they go along without any real conception of what they are asking for.
    After a few hours he was pretty calm and was let out of the cuffs. He was being remanded to a psyche clinic for 72 hours, and although he didn't like it, he was almost contrite. I let him call his mom and let her know what was going on, and he was very congenial with her, although earlier he spoke of her in very disparaging terms. Maybe twenty minutes later he was transported to the psyche clinic.
    A few hours later we had a code blue come in. A 66 year-old male had collapsed in a Motel 6 parking lot where he and his wife were staying for the night. He died at the hospital. When the doctor went to tell his wife it really got rough; on Father's Day for Christ's sake.
    That really had me in a blue mood. First the kid being such a downer (on himself, his mom, and everyone he came in contact with), then the older gentleman going out of his wife's life. I felt like I might have to do some contemplating of my own life, and maybe a drink wouldn't hurt, either.
    About an hour after I got out of that situation, as I was locking down the outpatient clinic, there was a lady waiting for her husband to bring her car up. She explained that they had come up from Los Angeles to see their granddaughter being born.
    She was so happy, and the news was so joyous (and appropriate) that I couldn't help but be happy with her. She couldn't possibly know, but her granddaughter was being born just about the time the older man died.
    It was like like I was allowed to look into a window and see the full circle of life. Maybe the sequence wasn't correct, or on reflection, maybe it was. What better way to appreciate being a father than to see the difficulties of youth reflected in a teen's face and actions. What better way to appreciate the day to day living when you see how tenuous our grip on life. And what better way to appreciate the renewal of life than to witness the inevitable replacement of us all by those we create.
    Perhaps I was meant to work that day, even though it is normally my day off. I have new thoughts to occupy my time, and a new appreciation for those in my life. Instead of just taking my family for granted, I can be more attuned to their existence and my part in that existence. Perhaps it was striclty a coincidence that those incidents took place. People die every day, babies are born every day, and there are always going to be kids testing the limits of their environment.  But the fact that I was a witness to all these situations, in one day, and was able to see the effect those instances held for others, seems like something more than just a coincidence. I think it was a message to me, and maybe a message to everyone else, too.



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