Armchair Pundits

A Winter's Afternoon With Bobby

Have you ever had a moment in your life when you knew you had changed? I've experienced such mile-marker moments at various times in my life and what follows is a description of one of those life altering occasions.

Following Christmas of 1992, I found myself in a new job. I anticipated that it would be quite a stretch as I was a pretty green college student, who had very little exposure to the field. I had just commenced my postion as a program counselor in an Intermediate Care Facility (a group home). In this capacity, it was my responsibility to provide direct care supports to developmentally disabled adults, who manifest a wide variety of maladaptive behaviors. As a suburban kid from private school, I had virtually no exposure to people with disabilities, and little did I know how much my life was about to change.

It was here that I met Bobby. He was a magnetic, energetic, middle-aged man, exhibiting some of the more profound behavioral challenges within the home. For whatever reason, Bobby liked me and we became fast friends. Life before the home had not been easy for Bobby. As so many people of his generation, he had spent a good portion of his life institutionalized. The horrors he endured in that place cannot be mentioned here. Suffice it to say, Bobby is a survivor and whatever the experiences, I am thankful the enlightened of that time had no such thing as a Groningen Protocol to guide their thinking or their treatments. If they had, our world, and my life in particular, would be so much darker. Stick with me for another moment or two.

January of 1994, was an interesting time for me. I had worked at the home for a little more than a year, and was having a great time there. Personally, things were a little more difficult, and I found myself feeling rather depressive. It was during this time that I really got it. I mean it truly sunk in - as to what a friend Bobby was/is. Even more than that, was the realization that whatever I gave of myself, it was returned to me in an exponential fashion from those I sought to serve. I vividly recall one particular Saturday afternoon. I was coming off a hard week. I had taken exams, turned in papers, lead floor activities (I was the RA) and I had worked a lot that week as well. Needless to say, I was a bit depleted. As was the customary ritual, I prompted my friend to consider the sensation in his bladder and attend to his subsequent need. Some assitance was required, and I found myself in the usual place, sitting along the tubs edge across from him. In the privacy of that moment, I felt the world crash in and I quietly blinked back the tears that were brimming. Bobby, the ever astute observer, tried to make eye contact to see if I was ok. Feeling a bit embarassed, I attempted to avert his gaze until I felt his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at Bobby, and as our eyes met, I could see the concern on his face. He softly began to coo at me. I was overcome. Here was a man, with a vocabulary of less than 10 words, communicating at the most powerful level - heart connectedness. Society had assigned him minimal value. Professionals from his past had stated that he couldn't communicate; yet Bobby looked into my eyes, and in so doing, saw the raggedness in my soul. He recognized my need and did everything in his power to ameliorate my weariness. It was a transcendent moment in my life and has lead to over a decade's worth of work with people with disabilities.

Squirrel, in a recent post, decried the direction western civilization is headed. We are, as Robert Bork so keenly describes, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. There has been a dramatic shift in the regard for human life within our civilization. This shift was appropriately delineated by David Allen White on a subsequent broadcast of Hugh's show. Specifically, the Hippocratic oath , as it is now sworn, no longer requires the physician to pledge that he/she will not preform an abortive procedure. This is the first crack in the overarching principle of "Do No Harm". The law of incremental change reveals the slippery slope concerning the regard of human life. What began [in America], as abortion for cases of rape and incest, has eroded to an abortion on demand ethic. As White correctly observed, society has now, in effect, moved from arguing the sanctity of human life for the more favorable (globally) argument for quality of life. The consequence of which, is disastrous. Such thinking, brought civilization human experimentation in the camps as Powerline teased out; making the obvious nazism connection. Once begun, where does this stop? Say good-bye to the defective in society. Now, doctor's can (and in some instances do), override familial desires by euthanizing out of a concern for the patient's quality of life. One quickly ascertains that the concerns physicians will be attending to, will be that of the insurance company and/or state. Squirrel, rightly warns of such involvement as does Froggy Ruminations. Imagine a life where the Bobby's of our world are never given a chance. Neither are the Stevie Wonder's, or the Ray Charles, or the Helen Kellers, or Joni Earkson-Tadas. So many of humankind's greatest achievements, regardless of the discipline or art, have been born out of the human experience. The fabric of such experience is diverse and imperfect. It contains triumphs and tragedies, immense joy and profound pain, and sometimes immense joy in the presence of profound pain. There isn't a perfect template for existence this side of eternity. It is not difficult to comprehend the impossibility of maintainig an exhaustive list of the gifted imperfect. Again, I ask where does it end? Mr. Bultitude has observed elsewhere, that the natural conclusion to such thinking is the widespread practice of eugenics. "Let us create the perfect, the Arayan". I'll leave it to the good professor for a more thorough discussion on this. In the meantime, the Groningen Protocol, and the thinking on which it is predicated, frightens the heck out of me. It ought to scare you as well.

posted by Grisby @ 3:49 PM