Over the course of ten minutes, about a dozen students in jeans and knit shirts filter into the room, taking seats around the rectangular table. Now in its fourth year, it runs from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. each Monday. Wood opens the floor by asking if the week's reading, an article on the Ten Worlds of Buddhism, brought to mind any experiences from the students' medical education. The students keep journals in which they're to write thoughts and feelings inspired by the readings.
Weekly topics range from alternative medicine to praying with patients.
No one responds to Wood's bid, so he starts the discussion by sharing something from his own journal. The day before, Easter Sunday, his sister called to tell him that their mother had been taken to the hospital. Lickerman, sitting to Wood's left at the head of the table, has a related story. During a recent visit to his parents, his mother developed chest pain, a rash, and swelling in her throat after taking a cold medicine. I was astounded at how nervous I became.