Encouragement (In Suffering, Pain, and Witnessing Both…) #13: When the Battle Has Passed and All That’s Left Are the Memories

The older I get, the more suffering and pain I’ve experienced; and the more of both I stand witness to. From my wife’s (and many, many of our friends and coworkers) battle against breast cancer; to my dad’s (and the parents of many of our friends and coworkers) process as he fades away as this complex disease breaks the connections between more and more memories, I have become not only frustrated with suffering, pain, and having to watch both, I have been witness to the suffering and pain among the students I serve as a school counselor. I have become angry and sometimes paralyzed. This is my attempt to lift myself from the occasional stifling grief that darkens my days. 

My first post for these encouragement essays went up in February of 2018; that’s close to three years ago…

As I sit here typing this, Mom and Dad have been gone four years and a year-and-a-half ago respectively. I’ve mused on how glad I am that neither one had to suffer through COVID19, but the things that have had to occur because of it. They never had to witness images like this: https://images.wsj.net/im-169334?width=1280&size=1 

I know for certain my dad would have recalled a scene from a movie we watched together: https://cinematicrandomness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Andromeda-Strain-The-FM001-1024x512.png 

That was called The Andromeda Strain (1971); this is called The COVID19 Pandemic…

I’m sure they’ll make a movie out of it someday.

I could, I guess, go down the rabbit hole and relate figures and stories that are NOT encouraging. It would be easy. It certainly seems that that is the route the newsmakers have chosen – bombarding us with horror stories dramatically narrated by brave journalists risking their lives to “tell us the truth”…

Don’t get me wrong, the news my wife and I watch make CERTAIN that after a zillion hours of horror, they toss us a very thin bone of hope, tastefully edited to have a ray of sunshine in otherwise grim and dark days. All we have to do is elect Joe Biden and give the senate over to the Democratic Party and all of our troubles will be over. Great-great-grandpa Joe will take all our troubles on his shoulders and Mother Nancy will make certain that the memory of the past four years of Evil Incarnate are erased from history…

It's hard to find encouragement here – except in the actions of regular people whose political affiliation isn’t the issue. Rather their HUMANITY is the issue.

Follow the link to this article written by one Steven Vera, Chief Executive Officer of Wachusett Ventures, LLC, which operates two Connecticut and two Massachusetts nursing homes. This appeared in the April 18, 2020 issue of The CT Mirror. It’s inspiring, hopeful, and ENCOURAGING:

https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/a-tribute-based-on-observation-and-experience/

Image: http://www.quoteambition.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/encourage-quotes-destiny.jpg