The Power of Tears

3360276.jpg

Social media did not exist when I was 26. But social work did — a profession dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals, groups, families, couples, and communities.

As the Golden Boy of an upper middle class Jewish family from New York, social work was not on my radar screen. The pay wasn’t good enough. The status wasn’t high enough. And the hours weren’t short enough.

My neighbor, the pediatrician, saw it differently.

So when my neighbor, a University of Virginia Medical Center pediatrician, invited me to become the social worker for a new, federally-funded “early intervention” program I was only half listening. Yes, I was social and yes, I knew how to work, but counseling parents of multi-handicapped infants did not seem like a talent I possessed.