Last month I wrote about forgiveness, sharing my experiences with Sam and Betty, neighbors from my childhood who were Holocaust survivors. In addition, I cited a chapter from the book Why Good Things Happen to Good People written by Dr. Stephen Post and Jill Neimark. Before proceeding I wish to correct a detail. I noted that Post was Professor of Bioethics and Family Medicine in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. I was informed by one of my readers that Post recently assumed the position of Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University in New York. Each chapter of Post and Neimark’s book is devoted to an attribute that contributes to a sense of happiness and physical and emotional well-being. In my November article I drew from their chapter “The Way of Forgiveness: Set Yourself Free” and described the journey of Samuel Oliner whose entire family was exterminated by the Nazis. As a child he narrowly escaped the same fate, but was haunted well into his adult life by these atrocities from his childhood. He came to the United States and earned a doctorate in Sociology but…
