Inclusion or Seclusion; Insiders and Outsiders; Bridges or Barriers

I have not posted on this site for a while. Every week, Daryl Tol, President of Florida Hospital shares a story with the Florida Hospital family and this one was posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016.  It is my pleasure to share this one with you. Thanks Daryl.

Speaking of unheralded, we probably forget sometimes that we have a University that is part of our family. If you’re a graduate, then you don’t, of course. But if you didn’t attend Adventist University of Health Sciences you could be forgiven for momentary lapses in remembering. Anyway, the leadership there spent some time this week planning and discussing and doing other smart and academically impressive things together. They even let me gather with them for about an hour, momentarily lowering the IQ requirement.

During their meeting they talked about the contrast between something called bounded sets compared to something called centered sets. I told you it was smart and academical. The explanation went something like this…

There are two different ways of keeping groups of things together. One is to gather them together and fence them in. That would be a bounded set. If you’re inside the fence you’re an insider. If you’re outside the fence…yep, you got it. The other way would be to create some kind of attractive element that draws things toward it. That would be a centered set. In that case, you’re not inside or outside. You’re just closer or farther from the attractive element in the center.

An example. In the American west as settlers started meandering across the landscape, they continually struggled with their animals wandering off. That’s why in 4^th or 5^th grade we learned about this amazing thing called barbed wire that transformed the west. Simply by pounding posts into the ground and stringing barbed wire across thousands of acres, ranchers and farmers staked their claims and bundled up what they owned into neat packages. They created huge bounded sets to identify what was in and what was out. And then gave them catchy names like “The Squirming S” or “The Rocking Z”.

Other parts of the world used a different approach. Australia is apparently a great example because it happened at around the same time. There, in Australia, they didn’t fence in the landscape. Instead, they dug water holes and wells. Knowing livestock in that dry territory would hang out close to water, they created a centered set. A place that would draw in their livestock, keeping them in reasonable proximity. The next rancher over would do the same thing and everyone would keep their cattle (maybe even a few kangaroos) close enough for comfort.

This kind of thinking defines our world. Consider countries. Some places get pretty extreme and build huge walls that try to keep their population inside. Think of places like the old Soviet Union or North Korea. It seems as if the higher the wall, the more people want to get out, but they still try. America is certainly imperfect, but it has built a philosophy around possibility that draws people here from all over the world. Rather than trying to leave, people come. It works so well, some people talk about building walls to keep people out. But that’s another topic entirely.

Consider the spiritual application. Some of us have been raised to believe that our religion is like a fence. You’re either inside (yay) or outside (boo). It can feel pretty good being inside of any group. And it can feel pretty bad being outside. It plays into our human nature as the insiders build a sense of superiority and the outsiders build a sense of resentment. Not really healthy in either direction.

God had a different plan. He didn’t build a fence. He built a well. He called it living water and said if we drank from it we wouldn’t ever be thirsty again. Many of us see the cross there. We know that God put it there and that any time we choose to turn toward it, it is there for us, no matter how far away we are. That it will save us whether we’re 10,000 miles away or 3 feet away. There’s no fence to climb over and there’s no inside or outside. We’re just His and He loves us. He loves us enough to let us wander off into the desert if we want to, but He always makes it so easy to come back. It’s a miracle, I think.

Once I realize the power of this, it changes the way I see other people. The way I’m called to care for everyone I come in contact with. Because we’re not on different ranches or part of various warring tribes. We’re on the same journey and can be a huge help to each other along the way.

Daryl

When Living Becomes Not Normal

Yesterday, July 1, 2015, I was admitted to surgery to repair an injured shoulder.  The procedure required anesthesia and a nerve block of the cervical or brachial plexus to deaden my arm.  Following the procedure, my arm remained limp in a sling, and without feeling, for the remainder of the night and into the next morning.  I had the experience of someone who could only use one arm.  Of course with my family providing support, I was not expected to do very much.  However, the morning after, I ventured to brush my teeth, use the bathroom, make a smoothie, and do normal things people do – grab, hold, move, scratch an itch.  It occurred to me how normal is taken for granted.

During the evening after returning home, I unconsciously attempted to clasp my hands and recognized that my hands didn’t know where each other was.  In fact, my left arm could not find where my right arm was. When they touched, only one responded. The left arm and hand did not respond and lay limply in the sling.  Have you ever tried to open a bottle or button a shirt with one hand? How do you open a tube of toothpaste without making a mess of it?  I had to think carefully and discover ingenious ways to accomplish simple tasks.  I placed a bottle of vitamins between my legs and used my right hand, the functional one, to open it and retrieve a tablet. I pressed the tube of toothpaste against the edge of the bathroom sink to stabilize it before twisting the cap to obtain toothpaste. Since the tube is soft, the tube twisted while the cap remained tightly attached.  My left arm was an appendage without motion and feeling.  Awaking in the middle of the night, I was almost startled by this warm, heavy appendage across my chest and wondered for a second who owned it.

My 18-hour encumbrance provided great respect for those born with, or those who have developed physical and mental challenges, deformities or deficiencies.  It provided me with a new appreciation for the difficult life and major adjustments required by many in our community – quadriplegics, paraplegics, and stroke patients; children born with deficiencies such as, cerebral palsy; trisomics, like those with Down syndrome, who live their entire lives with their physical deficits. 

My experience provided me with the following insights:

1.       We owe a great tribute to the dedicated occupational therapists who spend their professional lives devising ingenious ways, and developing tools and protocols, that enable people who live with physical and mental deficiencies to perform daily tasks more efficiently.

2.       We who are more physically gifted must exhibit far more patience, love, and care for those who struggle day by day to accomplish those tasks we often take for granted.

3.       We should never take for granted the many gifts of our physical abilities, which can be quickly snatched away by unfortunate accidents and ill health.

Love and Blessings!

Len