House Renovation

He has been standing behind a stone of meanness, hoping that it will keep him safe inside  the cold, dark cave of isolation he calls home. By turning people away with his mostly sarcastic and acerbic remarks, he hopes that they will eventually give up trying to see if there is any soft spot in him. Screaming at people, shouting, “Go away!”, would’ve been subtler.

The truth is he’s broken, he’s lonely, and deep inside, he wants to know if he can risk extending his hand to others. But this truth is one he does not want to deal with. After all, he can always cloak the nakedness of his soul with the robe of respectability his career hands him. Many people can curse his foul attitude but only the blind and deaf do not know he’s a genius. A brilliant yet hurting man. Sadly, no amount of Vicodin can medicate the pain that throbs not in his leg but in his heart.

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I’m talking about my favorite doctor, Dr Gregory House. In the first episode of the sixth season, he faces his inner demons inside an asylum that provides him temporary shelter. And Dr Nolan, the director of the mental facility, helps him by challenging him to answer hard questions, such as:

Why do you think people will treat you worse if they knew the truth?

Many things happened after this probing question was asked. In fact, not long after, Dr Nolan, seeing  House’s progress, said that he will be writing a recommendation for the latter to get his license to practice medicine again. This was immediately after House admitted to him, “She [Lydia, a woman he let in his heart] left and I’m lost.”

The diagnosis: House can go out into the world again. Dr Nolan explains, “You got hurt, which means you connected to someone else strongly enough to miss them…”

The House might be a little bit shaky but this season might prove to be the most interesting—at least for me—yet. Seems like a House renovation is ongoing. And I can’t wait to see the After.

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And now a related quote from my favorite author:

I met a woman who saw worth in me where I had seen little. The hard, cynical shell I had cultivated as a form of protection split apart like a carapace, and to my surprise I discovered that vulnerability need not mean danger.

Philip Yancey, Rumors of Another World