Brian Meyers
Dear friends, far and wide and tall and short,
The sort of thing that happens almost everyday but only once in a lifetime
happened to me this past weekend. It is the intersection of God's will
and my hope and that is joy...
She said, "Yes."
That's right, Megan Marie Eckerle will become Megan Marie Meyers on July
26th, 2003 in Detroit, MI. After a year of dating and many flights and
more phone-calls and prayer and laughter and a few tears, I asked her to
marry me one year to the day from when I met her.
I'd never done anything like that before, so I tried to keep it under raps
from her just in case I wanted to back out. I didn't then, don't now and
Lord willing, won't then or ever.
Anyway, everyone's invited and this is a request for snail-mail addresses
for the formal invite (that won't show up for a couple months, but set the
day aside if you even remotely, Bruce & Jo, think you can make it. It
would be great to see you all.
By the way, here's the quick intro to Megan:
She is a missionary kid from Papua New Guinea whose family is from Oregon
(her parents married in my home church there). Her defining quality is
her heart which is bent toward God and communion and community with Him.
SHe paints, teaches painting and is finishing up her Masters at Fuller
Seminary in LA in ethnomusicology before moving out here to Detroit. We
met in Africa last year through some crazy events (me getting my visa for
China after 2 months at a hospital there, her taking a three week mission
trip to help the Neofolo tribe with their development of Christian music
(that's what ethnomusicologist are qualified to do) and similar departure
dates with 5 days on the beach prior to leaving. When we had talked for 2
days, I knew that I would be stupid to let her go and told her so and then
asked her to come to my med school graduation in June, which she agreed to
and its been the open seas since then. My parents love her, her parents
tolerate me (heh heh, just kidding) and we're going to have a big
celebration this summer to commemorate the feat of finding someone worthy
of Marilyn's Meyers son. (incidentally, my mom's initials are MMM, as will
be Megan's--don't get all oedepedic on me, but it, like many coincidence
have been like squares on a bingo card that are a bit freaky) (i.e. she is
interested in urban redevelopment and street kids and music and art and
played the French Horn, piano and sings and likes to play Nertz and travel
the world and, yes, that's right, she LOVES Jiao zi (Chinese dumplings).
All told, our prayer is that God's work and relationship with mankind will
be made more evident because of our affection and commitment to each
other.
Please pass the word along to anyone and everyone (enemies alike) that
might be interested.
Look forward to hearing/seeing most of you.
Faithfully,
brian knickerbocker meyers
Christmas, 2002
Dear fellow grads.
Some of you I have known for over 30 years, so you likely know that by
now, every day, let alone, every year is an adventure in the life of Brian
Knickerbocker Meyers. Its true, some days are more than others, but on the
whole, I am grateful for every day as it remains a day from the God and
Father of all that is.
I just finished a month of Obstetrics in my Emergency Medicine Residency
at Henry Ford Hospital. Let me tell you, Christmas becomes more incredible
in light of that month. The travail of childbirth without drugs, monitors,
hovering, protective nurses borders on unimaginable. Let me try to put it
into words.
While every labor is a bit different, most 'prima gravidas' labor (meaning
uterine contractions with cervical change) for a good day or so. The
baby's head has to squeeze into the boney pelvis and 'engage' which comes
through the internal kneeding of the uterus, with the baby's head striking
the pelvic inlet over and over again, trying to figure a way out of its
solataire confinement without strangling itself or getting stuck. It is
not unlikely likely that having never been exposed to the male release of
prostaglandins that Mary's trial of labor was prolonged. Riding on the
donkey likely wasn't a bad thing and walking was certainly good, but labor
is just that...only there's nothing you can do to stop it.
The inevitable moment arrives. The baby 'crowns,' the mother screams and
the obstetrician tells her to get down to the business of pushing. These
few moments EVERYTHIING hangs in the balance. It would have been the first
time that Joseph saw that something was going on. He could have fainted
(its been done before). Its hard to say just what went on in these few
moments, but I would have had some concerns. Things can go south SO
quickly in a delivery. Just getting the entroitus to open up for a bowling
ball to pass through is enough to stop anyone's heart. But Mary had to
push through the pain.
Once the head comes out, there is not the guarantee that the shoulder is
going to come out easily. I delivered a 9 lb 15 oz baby whose head came
out much easier than the anterior shoulder. To get the shoulder out, I had
to apply about 20-30 lbs of downward pressure on the half delivered child.
Then the mom tore a bit. Such a tear can bleed like a typhoon drops rain
and endanger the mother. Recently, there was a Jehovah's witness who bled
after her home delivery and refused transfusion coming to the hospital
with a hemeglobin of 2 (normal is 12-14). Mary couldn't have had a
transfusion either. She had no access to fancy clips, perineal support, no
stitches, sterility, no pitocin or methergine. No nuthin. Not even an
insurance company or a Jeffrey Fieger to sue if something went wrong.
Jesus was likely born with feces and urine and lots of amniotic fluid and
blood in a drafty barn with no running water, hot or cold and no special
human attention into an era where likely one in ten babies died. This
birth was set up for trouble.
Nevertheless, His going forth was as certain as the dawn. Jesus had been
announced from ages past and Mary's support was from finger of eternity.
No birth has ever been more certain of the outcome: success. However
Joseph fumbled or Satan heckled or human's ignored, Mary was going to have
this baby. The angels knew it. Heck, the angels had probably been
practicing their tunes for centuries. They sang the triumph of prophecy
that ushered hope into squalor. This birth was headed not for the troubles
delivery, but for the trouble of our soul.
As anyone will tell you who has seen one, birth while earthy, speaks of
the divine. This birth of Christmas was the Divine speaking to the earth.
Because of that little baby, I am born a second time, born to help head
off the trouble of the soul.
Alright, enough of my pensivity, residency is going well, long hours, but
well. I've met a great lady and have been dating her for approaching 10
months. The kids and fragmented families in my Detroit neighborhood
continue to need the efforts of praying people everywhere. That, my fellow
grads, sums up these past few months resulting in a year.
If you're every in Detroit, give me a jing-a-ling-ling on the ding-a-ling
thing.
Faithfully,
Brian Meyers
313-874-2773
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