Dr. Tom Dooley tells the...
Illustration
Dr. Tom Dooley tells the story of two elders in one of the hospitals he served in Cambodia, each of whom were terribly ill. But in all their trials, they kept together. When he was having a good day, he would take care of her, and when he was worse than her, she would take care of him. What they shared, he said, was the fellowship of pain. That fellowship of pain bonds together those who know what suffering is. If someone who has never suffered disability tells a disabled person to "cheer up! Think of all those who are worse off than you are," they are liable to receive a reply they may think is rude. If an able-bodied person says to the wheelchair-
bound, "Well, you have to ask for help! Everybody needs help sometimes!" they may be classed as being insensitive. But when a woman who has herself undergone a mastectomy comes to visit a patient who has just had the same operation, the woman in the bed will listen, because she knows she is understood. This person has suffered, and has persevered. When a man who has lost both legs comes to the bedside of a man recently crippled, he will be believed, because he really knows the pain of the one he has come to help. We can hear best those we know have suffered as we are suffering. -- Herrmann
bound, "Well, you have to ask for help! Everybody needs help sometimes!" they may be classed as being insensitive. But when a woman who has herself undergone a mastectomy comes to visit a patient who has just had the same operation, the woman in the bed will listen, because she knows she is understood. This person has suffered, and has persevered. When a man who has lost both legs comes to the bedside of a man recently crippled, he will be believed, because he really knows the pain of the one he has come to help. We can hear best those we know have suffered as we are suffering. -- Herrmann
