No news today. I’m still relaxing with my family, just being home, eating my way through Christmas. But I was (with my lovely wife May) reflecting on something.
At the University hospital they’ve invested a lot in “art”. Mostly what I’d call institution art. There are a few nice pieces scattered throughout the hospital but mostly its just lithographs of varying quality and color covering the walls and halls, but none in the sterile white rooms where the patients stay. I have an eye for art, and institution art does not catch it. I might go so far as to call it decoration instead of art. But I’m not here to ponder the philosophy of art.
Then they decorated the hospital for Christmas, which was very nice. Lots of lights and trees and decorations.
This is just to say that they have gone to great lengths to try to brighten up the place. But for us the nicest thing to see in the whole hospital is the empty baby carts left by the exit doors. They represent life and hope for the future. Someone going home, a family growing. A little brother or sister in a big family or a member of a new family of two. They are going home for their first Christmas and hopefully many of them will never have to go back to a hospital. Yet, I know that some of them might spend the better part of their lives in health care. But for right now they are home with their families, where they belong. That sight and that thought inspire more hope and emotion in me than all the rest of the art at Rikshospital.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!