Benjamin has favorites: movies, flavors of milkshakes, songs. This week the recurring tune playing at our house is "One More Sleep til Christmas".

Maybe seeing Scrooge go through a transformation is cathartic for him. Certainly Ben was as haunted by his anxiety as Marley ever was. For Scrooge, it took the visitation of three ghosts to change. For Ben, perhaps the miracle is wrapped in a white pill no larger than a jelly bean.

Before Benjamin went in the hospital, there was a battle going on inside of him. Although both of the antagonists were beneath the skin, the fight was intense. One month out, it looks like the Peaceful Ben is victorious.

There are all manner of conflicts that rip people, and their marriages, apart. Adultery, deceit, addiction all cleave people who promised to cleave to one another. But hope can rise as reliably as the dawn, as quickly as a refrain.

There are vociferous people who object to preempting Halloween with Christmas. Make that Labor Day. But I am softened by a seventeen year old pre man who thinks it is not too early to be happy.