Thursday, September 27, 2018

THOUGHTS THAT KEEP ME AWAKE AT NIGHT


In the Face of Evil, It is Right to Be Insubordinate.
I was an Agent for Pinkerton.
 
 
I think about poor people and refugees on their trek through deserts and forests, losing their precious, wide-eyed babies to heartless wild seas as they rush out toward dreams, in desperate search of safe haven. How they must suffer without toilets and toilet paper, soap, precious water. I imagine what they leave behind in addition to their broken bodies, their terrified children and their bitter tears. Bloody fertilizer of the future – for better or for worse?
 
I wonder about the millions of starving people around the world. Even in the most remote jungles, so many seem to have the most modern ipods, "smart phones", cell phones and lap tops. We can see that they take and send videos and "selfies". But so many are gaunt and boney and have broken, rotting brown teeth. I don't understand.
 
I watch patients in waiting rooms in hospital in Montreal – greatly blessed by Medicare - many in poor shabby clothes ... tapping away in the glow of their gadgets… and I wonder how they pay for them. Almost every patient is focused on one of those gadgets. Only a few chat with the human beings who accompany them, volunteer companions or their neighbours. (Great opportunity for inter-cultural exchange, learning and perhaps making friends). But how do they afford the rental of those gadgets?
 
I wonder about the hospital gowns in our beautiful, modern hospitals: "Put one on in the front and one in the back". I can't tie a knot or a bow in the back. Many elderly sick people can't. "Ask a nurse to help you". As if nurses have nothing more urgent to do.
 
I see patients walking about with their backsides exposed - dignified people, teachers and store keepers, grandfathers, mothers - undone by barely covered bottoms in these primitive hospital gowns. "One long size fits all" dips into the toilet as you struggle to accommodate the necessities of life.
 
Why two gowns? Why not one gown – straight, spacious front panel, matching attached back panel, spaces for arms, just slip over the head - no ties, no buttons, no snaps? Every dignity covered. How costly to launder, transport and maintain the extra stacks of long clumsy gowns still in use.
 
The nurses bring welcome, comforting warm blankets. What "brain" decides how to fold those long, long blankets? How can sick people keep covered when the blanket seems to be 20 feet long and no feet wide? Who has the energy to unravel a heavy blanket and figure out how to cover up?
 
Why use so much fabric to cover a single bed? Why not fold the blankets in the laundry so they open in a way that most patients could open them without asking for help?
 
In the darkness of our world's really serious problems, these thoughts often keep me awake. It is now almost 7:00 am and I will try, again, to sleep.
 
This is my "Blog". It is always about JUSTICE.
 
Phyllis Carter

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