Alfred and I were playing cards the last night of his visit.  When he won a hand too easily, I commented "Even the Devil is dealt a good hand occasionally!"

Of course, Alfred agreed.  For he's the one who introduced me to the phrase "Good deeds never go unpunished; bad deeds never go unrewarded."

Our serious discussions frequently become cynical.  Cynical of human nature, and cynical of society - with the one causing the other.  Infrequently, we suggest solutions, but we both know they are exercizes in theoretical "what if" thought experiments that will never be tried.

"So what happens when the Devil is dealt a really good hand?" I asked.

"We get what we have now." he answered.

"No, seriously," I insisted, "what could happen if by a random act of fate a really big opportunity landed in the lap of the Devil?"

"Like what?"

"Well, like suppose..."

By calling my bluff so abruptly, he forcced me to think fast.  I recalled the advice of a "creative thinking" program that implored the user to try out "opposite thinking" so as to point the way to "desired thinking."

"Like, suppose a microbiologist discovered a cure for hemophilia, a cure that enabled the hemophiliac to live a normal life and have as many children as everyone else?"

I felt satisfied with that hypothetical, knowing that he'd understand the tragedy I meant to portray.

"But that's already happening." he replied.

He stood up from his chair with pride, and walked over to my stack of newspapers for the week, and picked through the pile until he retrieved the one he wanted.

"OK, it says here, and I quote:"

Faust has hemophilia, a dangerous and debilitating inherited disorder that prevents his blood from clotting.  He needs weekly injections of a clotting protein, a cumbersome regimen that costs $150,000 a year.  Quietly, in an industrial park on an island in San Francisco Bay, white-coated scientists at Avigen Inc. are plugging away on a genetic treatment that could be more effective, cheaper and easier.  One shot each year or so could give hemophiliacs a healthy version of the gene that orders the body to produce their missing blood-clotting protein.

I interrupted "Does it say they're going to ask patients to get a vasectomy before giving the treatment?"  Alfred continued reading:

Avigen also is eyeing possible genetic therapies for Parkinson's disease and Gaucher's disease - an inherited enzyme-deficiency disorder.  [Associated Press, by Brian Bergstein, Alameda, CA, December 10, 2000]

"Is that what you meant when you said 'We get what we have now?' when I asked what happens when the Devil is dealt a really good hand?"

"Well, in light of this article, I should have said 'Faust has made a pack with the Devil, and as the Devil is just now playing his new hand it is for every future generation to know what happens when the Devil is dealt an especially good hand.' "

 Faust Legends

This site opened:  December 10, 2000.  Last Update:  December 10, 2000