The circumcision

 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2017

To the doctor, we go, today.

Today is the circumcision.
He is 73, and I am 51.

51 years ago he made, the choice...
... the same for me.

Now I make choices, for him ...
... for us?

In ancient Israel, it was the sign,
... of the covenant.

Now it is a sign, of ministrations,
... mine, for him.

Once he made the choices for me,
... now I make them for him.

We both did choose,
... of love, and care.

Then with choice,
... comes,
... redemption.

Of both, have come,
... sins.

Of ignorance,
... and choice.

With redemption, comes …
... forgiveness,
... learning,
... and joy.

He is helping me,
... to understand, his choices,
... and mine.

After my mother died, I became my father’s full-time caregiver.  He developed temporary dementia from a urinary tract infection.  As part of his treatment, I took him to a urologist to have a circumcision.  I was in the surgical suite at the urologist, on the day of the surgery.  He kept asking the nurse to save it for him so he could make a coin purse from the foreskin. At his previous pre-operation appointment, I saw the inside of his bladder from a very small camera.  Not many sons have seen the inside of their father’s bladder.