With Tales and Folly Instead of Pills

In With Tales and Folly Instead of Pills, Dr. Merryandrew takes readers through a day of "clown rounds" in the Pediatric Unit and Pediatric Emergency Department of a mid-sized hospital in North Carolina. As he mimes a protective shield of light around a patient endowing it with the power of a wrinkle in time, dusts a patient with moonpowder, transforms into a chimney sweep to sweep pains and poisons from bodies with a magical brush, sings songs, tells tales, or introduces patients to the antics of his marionette partner, Dr. Merryandrew demonstrates how one clown equipped with a combination of magical consciousness, wit and wisdom can serve to benefit the well-being of patients in the hospital. In the course of relating the day, he encourages readers to consider that health is not just quantitative calibration of bodily functions; it is an incommensurate quality of soul. And hospitalization is not only about getting a cure or fix. Hospitalization may be considered a rite of passage by which one is meaningfully changed and through which one experiences deeper appreciation for the vitality of being and greater awareness of communion in the gestures of compassion.