A Reverie: Fall Foliage Going Out in a Blaze of Glory

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

I am not sure what led to me writing this reverie. Perhaps it was the influence of all the psychiatrist eulogies I wrote last week. Perhaps it was the email from Marriott Bonvoy titled: “Steven’s Autumn Story Begins”! Or was it the lingering memory from last year’s video on “Colorful Autumn Leaves Can Prepare Us for Death and Dying”? Or a more direct example of being a conduit of divine influence on the chosen content of these columns? Whatever it was, I started writing until I stopped after a half hour or so. Here is the raw reverie draft of what I wrote. No revisions.

In the Northern hemisphere, we have entered the fall season. In many areas, it is a season of beautiful fall foliage, spreading from the North to South of the United States. Usually, it is thought to be most beautiful in New England, as we viewed firsthand when I was in Yale Medical School. We were also over 50 years younger, with our careers just started and our first child being born. We tended to identify with the emerging beauty but ignoring when the leaves fell off and the trees became barren.

Over time, we tried to pay some attention to the foliage changes, even in our home of Milwaukee, but less than our first magnificent exposures. In psychiatry, we came to learn that the corresponding falling time of daylight was a preview of the winter of increased seasonal sadness and depression.

Now, in older age, the fall foliage seems different. Soon, we are anticipating driving through some colors of fall foliage on the way to Houston. Yet now I view it as a metaphor for the decreasing time we have before the coming winter of our lives, no longer in sole anticipation of growth and daylight, but death and dying. That is, the leaves cannot only parallel some of the beauties of life and also of old age, but such beauty is becoming more precious as we age with illnesses that may not be cured. I get tired quicker. So, I would anticipate being overwhelmed with the beauty of fall foliage as we were over 50 years ago, but tinged with the limited future viewing opportunities. That is so with all we are blessed to have had and still do. Our kids must sense this as they are visiting us more often.

In psychiatry, I still feel my knowledge is increasing and hopefully accompanied by some wisdom. I know my writing—and even presentations—are at some sort of peak, but for how long as my memory diminishes? I do now know from experience how much psychiatry can be of benefit to the everyday challenges of communities. I now know, too, that intermittent discussion of death and dying can help us all prepare a potentially peaceful dying process.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.