Category Archives: Thoughts

Consider

Royal Pian in the Neck.

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As I start writing this I am sitting in a chair in the Emergency room at the new Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

A cyst in my neck has developed an infection becoming painfully swollen, filled and bulging with pus and other ichors. The pain and the desire to deal with the infection before it spread throughout my body sent me off to my doctor.

Who said it was a matter that needed to be dealt with at the hospital so I headed off to Emergency.

The hour and a half spent in the waiting room was not unexpected and I relaxed and wiled away the time watching several cooking shows on the food network which was playing on one of the several TVs situated around the much more spacious waiting room.

My name was called and I followed the nurse into the emergency room where I entered one of the curtained cubicles and sat down to await the doctor, who arrived shortly.

Taking a look at my neck he expressed his displeasure and upset with the fact that my neck had not been opened and the cyst removed at my doctor’s office rather than sending me to Emergency.

However when this same cyst had developed an infection last year, the doctor at the walk-in clinic only lanced the infection to allow the pus and assorted ichors to drain telling me , as I was handed a prescription for antibiotics, that I needed to go to the hospital to have the cyst itself removed.

Now I really do not care who was correct about where the cyst should have been removed.

What I do care about is the ER doctor expressing his displeasure with me being directed to Emergency, then stalking off to deal with, as he put it, “…real sick people” and leaving me sitting around for hours wondering when he would get around to treating my neck seemingly fallen to the bottom of his list because of his displeasure with my doctor sending me to Emergency.

It was unfair and unprofessional for the ER doctor to allow his pique with my doctor sending me to Emergency to affect his interactions with and treatment of me.

Running out to plug more money to feed the voracious appetite of the parking meter machine I did find myself wondering if part of the reason it takes so long in the ER is because it costs $2 an hour to park with no maximum set as to the amount that can be extorted. I wonder how much faster people would be in and out of ER if a maximum parking charge of 2 hours was set for ER patients?

When the ER doctor deigned to return to me, again raising the subject of my doctor’s action, I was very careful to be noncommittal to avoid spending more hours sitting in the ER. He opened up my neck, cleaning out pus, ichors, and digging out the cyst then sending me off saying I probably did not need antibiotics and that I could have the packing removed in three days or even remove it myself.

Later that night as I was washing the blood that leaked out of the wound and into the collar of my shirt, sincerely regretting the lack of pain medication as the freezing wore off and contemplating the use of alcohol as a pain killer and/or sleep aid, I decided to pay an official office visit to a nurse of gentle hands and compassion the next day. Who did indeed carefully and gently change the bandage for me

When she heard I had not been given a prescription for antibiotics she handed me some extra bandages instructing me to change the bandage every day and pay careful attention to the discharge and if it looked like an infection was setting in to see a doctor for antibiotic treatment.

I was told that I should seek out someone to remove the packing in the wound, rather than remove it myself as suggested by the ER doctor. Preferable someone with access to wound packing materials in case it needed to be repacked. That I should have the packing removed sooner rather than later to avoid any complications or problems.

Fortunately she also informed me as to what over-the-counter pain medication I should seek out to provide relief from the pain.

It was much more pleasant, helpful and informative to deal with a medical practitioner behaving in a considerate and professional manner.

Poverty

Greed Season officially opens with a death.

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It is the Friday following American Thanksgiving, official opening day of the Greed Season.

Before dawn Friday a ravaging horde, maddened by their greed at the promise of bargains, literally trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death. A man was being trampled to death and the crowd kept stampeding into the store and shopping, going so far as to push the police, who were there to try to save the life of the trampled employee, out of the way of shoppers run riot in their panic at the thought of missing a bargain.

The world economy is in meltdown and the root cause of this meltdown is greed.

Not just the greed of those in the financial system, although their insatiable greed and quest for multi-million dollar bonuses triggered the current economic implosion which has us teetering on the brink of disaster.

The greed was spread far and wide. The greed of shareholders who demanded faster, higher rising stock prices; the greed of executives for the multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses that came with delivering higher and higher stock prices; the greed of workers focused on wages and benefits; the greed of financiers for large fees and interest charges in financing these companies – whether they were viable or not; greed of politicians for the political contributions generated by all this greed; greed by the public that bought into the impossible political promises of lower taxes and wealth for all; greed that reprehensible acquisitiveness, that insatiable desire for wealth.

A house of paper built on the foundation of greed, an empty house collapsing in on itself as if it were of no more substance than a house built out of playing cards.

The price we will pay in correcting the economic mess that building on a foundation of greed is going to be painful, perhaps extremely painful. Unfortunately this pain will fall most heavily on the most vulnerable in our society, those least deserving or able to bear the price.

I strongly advocate that we consider the wisdom of using the virtue of charity as the foundation and as the building blocks with which we rebuild.

Not just the more restricted modern use of the word charity in its meaning of benevolent giving, but charity in the fullness of its older meaning as an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.

As a result of our greed over the past two decades our food banks are inundated with those who depend on them for the food to sustain life. As a result of the fallout from our greed our food banks are currently being swamped by new clients in need. As a result of focusing on ourselves, donations at our food banks are falling at the very time they need to be rising.

What is needed is a generous outpouring of loving-kindness for others that results in a tidal wave of donations to our food banks (and Christmas Bureaus) assuring that anyone in need will find sustenance.

Let us turn our back on greed and embrace charity in its full meaning of unlimited loving-kindness toward all others and not focus on worrying about our own future economic situation. Rather than worrying about the future, focus on those in need now.

Instead of buying another dust-catcher for that hard to buy for someone on your Christmas gift list, make a donation to you local food bank in their name. Or perhaps rather than an exchange of gifts, you can exchange donations.

Offices often have those $10 gift exchange games. Why not everyone throw the $10 into an envelope for donation to the local food bank? I have complete faith that another game can be found to give people a chance to laugh at our own and others foibles.

We need to be creative and generous in meeting the demands placed on our local food banks by increasing hunger and need in our communities.

It is time and past time that rather than trampling others underfoot, we extent our hand to help up those in need of such help.

Hmmm

A cautionary Tale.

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It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone – “to relax,” I told myself. But I knew it wasn’t true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don’t mix, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, “What is it exactly we are doing here?”

Things weren’t going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother’s. I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, “Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking on the job, you’ll have to find another job.” This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss. “Honey,” I confessed, “I’ve been thinking…”

“I know you’ve been thinking,” she said, “and I want a divorce!”

“But Honey, surely it’s not that serious.”

“It is serious,” she said, lower lip aquiver. “You think as much as college professors, and college professors don’t make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won’t have any money!”

“That’s a faulty syllogism,” I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I’d had enough. “I’m going to the library,” I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors… they didn’t open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. “Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?” it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker’s Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was “Porky’s.” Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed… easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.

Consider

Reality Check

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I spent some extra time with some homeless friends today as a reminder and reality check.

There is this kafuffle going on concerning the building of safe, affordable, supported housing in Abbotsford with BC Housing and Social Development picking up the cheque.

It was not the fact that none of us know what type of housing were are talking of at this point and won’t know what type of housing it is that is proposed to be built until the submissions are made in response to BC Housing’s call for proposal submissions that had me seeking a reality check.

The reality check was set in motion by the comment from someone experienced with politics in Abbotsford who said that the way to win a council seat was to come out in opposition to building this type of housing or housing of this type on these sites or for building this type of housing only in the “right place” and that supporting this housing, no matter how badly needed, was political suicide.

I had found myself thinking along those lines as I sat at both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s public meetings. It was on my mind when I got up to speak on Thursday evening. When speaking to someone after Monday’s council meeting I found myself wondering if I should admit my name and that I was a candidate for council. I knew what the proper course of action was and I took that course of action but I was aware of the political implications and was tempted to take easy way out.

That temptation had me heading off to spend time with some homeless friends for a reality check and a reminder – of who I am and what I stand for.

Abbotsford has some serious problems it must address such as homelessness. A major reason homelessness and related social problems have become such a large and pressing issue is the failure to deal with the problems. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the failure is the result of avoiding having to make unpleasant decisions and tough, unpopular decisions.

To often the politically astute choices are the wrong choices because the politically astute choices are choosing not to deal with the problem in an effective manner to avoid conflict or making an unpopular decision.

So it was that I sat down to talk to my homeless friends about this because they have a way of cutting through the angst and inner conflict of such dilemmas to ground one in the harsh reality of the streets and remind me of who it is that I am and that I am prepared to stand for something rather than rolling along whichever way the wind is blowing.

Other Writers

Newspapers need to stop taking the easy way out

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Editor

This is my first time in my 40 years I have been compelled to write a newspaper. I have been dealing with my mental health issues and for the last three years have received help and support from an organization which has supported and helped many other in our community.

I have been reading both the Times and News for a few years watching for recognition of this organizations contributions to the community of Abbotsford.

From personal experience I know this organization is client centered, providing not just services but a fellowship and belonging which next to shelter and basic needs is necessary for Self-esteem and Self-worth.

To a certain degree this not receiving recognition is a fault of the organizations priorities. Employing a PR person to arrange for newspaper stories and recognition of their numerous contributions to the community and the people they serve is simply not a priority for this organization as it has better uses for its money and time.

Apparently my view of what newspapers are supposed to be about is skewed. I have always assumed that publishers, editors and reporters where aware of and in touch with what was going on in their communities and what organizations were contributing to the welfare of citizens within their communities. I thought local newspapers would inform the community at large about these organizations services and contributions to the health of the community.

Instead it seems that our local papers simply rely on and write about what an organizations PR shill chooses to submit to them.

Leaving an organization which provides amazing long term successful mental health recovery services and programs in our community not getting the recognition they deserve from our local media.

I agree with James W Breckenridge’s article about the fact that if you add up all the claims of people housed by organizations in Abbotsford we should have a negative number of homeless on our streets.

A number of organizations are pumping out turnstile numbers to access funds and grants, taking funds away from organizations that actually provide people with the fellowship, belonging and long term support that is necessary for recovery. Because if an organization is not providing the services to be successful long term they have a turnstile endlessly counting the same services and people over and over.

I count today; tomorrow when you come back I will count that as 2: when next day comes that will be 3; and so on and son on.

Same with housing, Wondering why they are able to help so many, yet the numbers on the street haven’t changed. What are the successes based on? Even if an individual is able to find housing for a month, but has no other fellowship or sense of belonging to anything else besides the street they will simply find there way back where? To the street, Why? We fed them gave them shelter all the necessities right. Why did this person throw all that away? I will explain this and its simple you can give a person all that you feel they need but if there fellowship and belonging has not changed they will return to the one they had.

A successful count should be only be long term only has meaning in the long term. Having a person housed for 12 months with a newly developed sense of fellowship and belonging in the community should be a bare minimum consideration for being able to say they have a success.

There needs to be some kind of accountability when these organizations say they have helped xyz number of persons in need.

I am not saying that these organizations are not in need, they very much are. I would just like them to be honest and upfront – if you simply fed or shelter someone then say we successfully served xyz with a meal and shelter for xyz number of days. But do not say that this is recovery or rehabilitation because it is simply not true.

I believe, based on my personal experience, that any organization that does not develop a peer system or fellowship with the persons they serve will fail. Whether it is addictions, mental health, or homelessness they will fail.

Somewhere some basic psychology has been lost. One of the first things you encounter in psychology, that has been around forever is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to self actualization.

Most successful organizations in the recovery field have a peer support system; examples of this are AA sponsors, MH Peer Support Workers, Mentors. For some reason the most inexpensive and successful treatment of persons in need has been lost, replaced by politicized, expense formulated costly services that have complicated matters and left out the basic need for fellowship.

Fellowship provides belonging, when we are validated and accepted only then do people have a sense of self-esteem or worth. Organizations need to heed this approach to be successful.

Newspapers need to stop taking the easy way out, start paying attention to what is happening in the community and informing the public what the actual situation is. Only in this manner can the public make informed judgments and decisions about these pressing social problems.

Ray Patrick