had taken a weekend training in San Francisco and returned to rural Iowa to continue training with local volunteers. The weekends were modeled after the one I had taken in San Francisco and were equally intense.   For one of the workshops, a fellow psychologist had allowed her home to be used for the weekend. At the last minute, she could not attend but told us that her husband, Dr. Flory, a physician who was on call that weekend, would be in and out during the weekend, but that we would have an undisturbed workshop.   That Saturday night after the participants left, her husband came home and we chatted as I cleaned up and prepared for the next day's final workshop. I happened to tell him about how my lover, Michael, had suddenly died a few years ago in 1987 from AIDS. He said, "Yes. I knew Michael."   I was stunned! How could he have known Michael? I had never seen him at the hospital.   The story he told me was this: Michael's doctor at the time was a new, interning doctor and all his work was being reviewed by an on-staff physician...it was Dr. Flory and I was there standing in his home! He told me that at the time, in rural Iowa you must remember, that the only people with AIDS that doctors came across were those who had come home to Iowa from LA or NYC and that they had never seen someone with AIDS other than those who had "come home" with it. This led the doctors in small town America to think that it would never happen to someone who had never been outside of Iowa. Now, here was Michael, who had not been to any of those cities, who had not been a traveler, who stayed in the small farm towns all his life...and he now had AIDS. Dr. Flory said that Michael's illness caused many, many doctors to sit up and take note of the fact that AIDS was HERE! It wasn't just an illness that others brought home with them like a deadly souvenir. He said that Michael's illness caused doctors to diagnose and treat more rapidly and aggressively those who showed signs of HIV who were from this area.   There was now a "positive" to say about Michael's illness and death. It had likely helped others to live longer by being diagnosed and treated sooner by causing the local doctors to be more vigilant and to ignore stereotypes about who would and wouldn't have this disease.   Had I not had the training at Shanti Project and continued with the workshops, I would likely never have met Dr. Flory and heard this wonderful, saving news. It helped to bring me more "inner peace" to such a horrible health war.   —Jim       CONTACT THIS CONTRIBUTOR