(no subject)

I left the hospital early last night, because no matter what room I went to, the only thing anyone could say was, "Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?", and it didn't seem like a chaplain was really necessary for that conversation. When you're in step-down with people just coming out of surgery, and the only thing they can say to you is, "Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?", you know the situation is just going in a particular direction and there's nothing you can do.

(Yes, in a textbook world this would open the door to all sorts of discussions about death and grief, but in the real world it just opens the door to discussions about Thriller and how his kids may have been conceived. And I'm just not the person you want for that.)