spoiler alert: if you haven’t seen the 4/6 episode of House, don’t read this!
I really enjoy the Fox series, House. I think it’s because I came into this life with a mystical sense about the body, and because, like Dr. Greg House himself, I love puzzles. Medicine is nothing if not a puzzle because all bodies are different.
Well, in last night’s episode, Dr. Lawrence Kutner, played admirably by Kal Penn, committed suicide—totally out of the blue. It was disturbing, alarming, intriguing to me and to Dr. House. He couldn’t believe that he’d seen no previous indications of it. In fact, I can go so far as to say that it tormented the core of Dr. House, the answerman. He’s used to supplying answers; it’s the thing he values most about himself. He was caught out in last night’s episode.
So the story of why Kutner committed suicide will be played out during this season of House, but the story of Penn and why he left the show excites me more than the fictional one. Think on it: an actor, gainfully employed (a rarity), happy with his role and his colleagues, decides he wants to do something different. That’s all.
Kal Penn worked on the Obama campaign for the presidency. He was into it. I remember seeing him by the Lincoln Memorial in the arts presentation the week of the inauguration. So Obama offers him a gig.
He goes to his producers and says, basically, that he loves his job, that he loves his role, that he’s totally satisfied, and that it’s time to do something different. Together, the three of them figure out what to do to free Penn to work for his country.
What a magical way to leave something! The best possible way ever. Most of us have to make wrong where we are in order to leave it. Penn did the opposite. This is conscious leave-taking. He’s leaving something, yes, but more, he’s going toward something he wants.
What really happened? I think he listened to his spirit, that Divine Spark within each of us which is whole, unadulterated, pure and crystal clear about our path in life. And, better still, he followed it—gracefully, joyously, clearly.
Kal Penn is going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They’re basically the front door of the White House. He’s taken a salary cut but he’s investing in himself in a big way.
Mazel tov, Kal. I’ll miss you on House, and I hope to see you the next time I knock on the front door of the White House.
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