Sunday, December 14, 2008

"It's A Wohlfahrt Life"

So I'm flipping through the channels on television last night, killing time before Saturday Night Live comes on, when I run across Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" with it's timeless theme of how each man's actions touches others.

And I'm shocked that "Doctor" Robert Wohlfahrt's name isn't "Clarence" because, like Clarence the angel, Robert Wohlfahrt is an older man - a quack doctor in Wissembourg, France - who was willing to strip down to his underwear in order to radically affect the life of a younger American man - all the way around the world in San Francisco - who he'd never met before.

By not respecting the bonds of marriage, the history and success of traditional medicine, medical ethics - or even honoring his powerful position (and responsibility) as a physician - he was more-than-willing to change the life I had with the wife I loved.

And he fundamentally changed me, too, in ways that altered - and many times severed - my relationships with everyone, and everything, I thought I knew.

He warped how I now see the entire world.

Remember: I was just a guy.

I wasn't rich but I was happy to be doing what I was doing.

Then, all of a sudden, I was in need of help - from people, both, here and in France.

But what kind of help could I get against a charlatan posing as a "professional" doctor?

So I no longer recognized the world I lived in, filled as it was now with the ugliest of crimes - lying, quackery, cultism, murder - and, of course, illicit sex.

For weeks, I called everyone I knew, all over the world.

I even tried appealing to "Doctor" Robert Wohlfahrt himself - and he laughed at me.

He didn't behave like a doctor at all: he was cruel, thought only of himself, and showed none of the compassion this famous "doctor" is supposedly known for.

He didn't care - he had gotten what he wanted - so he certainly wasn't going to be of any help to me.

He was a quack - and lonely - so he saw his job as making sure the dance that was my marriage was over.

Because this "doctor" didn't care to behave in a professional manner, my wife was no longer the same person: I was forced to see her looking at me - and behaving - like the town whore.

Before "Doctor" Robert Wohlfahrt, I used to sing to her, and was able to make her laugh.

I adored her.

But now, after 20 years of marriage, I had lost everything.

And I wanted to die.

I started to drinking heavily.

I found myself running through the streets like a madman, screaming, "Is this hell what a doctor is supposed to do?"

For me, "Doctor" Robert Wohlfahrt is no angel, like Clarence - and he isn't a doctor either - because doctors are supposed to "first, do no harm."

But there has been harm - and now that I know about "Doctor" Robert Wohlfahrt's NewAge outlook, his love for cultism, his lack of respect for professional medical boundaries, and the crazy "science" of homeopathy - there won't ever be a moment when my life returns to normal.

Because of "Doctor" Robert Wohlfahrt's madness, arrogance, and pride, I know there will never be a time when apologies are made - and, of course, there is no way to get my family back.

All I can hope for, now, is the French authorities doing the right thing.

Because otherwise - unlike in "It's A Wonderful Life" - there won't even be a little bit of a happy ending for me.

I'll be living out my life in a whole other movie - an existential, and international, one - and the most important film that, unfortunately, at this time is still unseen by the public:



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