....... this is something i wrote some time ago but it is so real now and want to share it .........
Sledgehammer 2
The Sledgehammer weighed 10 kilos and we were planning to use it on the door of a young persons room in our 150 bed YMCA Hostel.
John had barricaded his room and it had all gone quiet for some time. We were worried because of his threatened suicide. “John we are worried about you – just make a noise – turn on the radio – anything to tell us you are O.K.”. We left it for a short while.
John doesn’t communicate. He can speak but life has damaged him in such a way that he does not relate. It has taken six months of saying “Hello John” and raising my thumbs with a smile to get him to produce a slight waving of his thumb. At nineteen he walks slowly around as if in desperate fear.
Time was up – “John we have to break down the door so do not be afraid of the noise,” said Dave our youngest Professional Secretary who works closely and affirming with him. The door was smashed out of its frame – painful noise permeating all eleven floors. It had to be knocked downwards, being held by a bed at the bottom. Eventually I lifted the splintered door out of the horrible gap with a range of fearful expectations in my heart. The room was in darkness – smashed up and John was standing in the farthest corner – crying – shaking with his sobs. “Don’t worry John, you are O.K. now” said Dave “it’s you we are concerned about”.
Dave sat on the floor, John sat on the end of his bed and the real work began, while I went for cups of tea and biscuits – John likes biscuits.
John is one of over 3,000 members and residents and an extreme example of someone in need. A number of others display behaviour, which is not submissive but aggressive and more painful to deal with. However difficult it is, we believe that: -
There are no difficult people
Only difficult behaviour
John is unfit in a different way than others of us – yet he needs ‘development’ not ‘control’. He is being worked with by Dave and others and a regular thumbs up smile from me.
“Dave sat on the floor and John sat on the bed”
I have never yet mentioned this to Dave, my colleague, - but I delight in the picture stamped in my mind. Dave sat below John, in the rubble of a smashed room, taking the position of vulnerability…………..I weep as I conclude – joy and sadness.
See from his head, his hands, his feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
.
