Not a PATCH on Him
It’s funny how some days more than others can give you an attack of remembrance. This one today kind of blind-sided me. It materialised out of nowhere. A few years ago now a friend of mine wanted to attract Corporates to a film unit programme he was running inside a major hospital to deliver health information to patients in their rooms.
It needed something or even someone as a real draw card. It occurred to me that who he really needed was a guy whose name and life epitomised everything good about the Health sector with gallons of colour and personality but more importantly a man with a good deal of compassion and knowing. He’s renown for it.
Hunter has it by the bucket loads. So (at the time) I sent his secretary an email because Hunter aka ‘Patch’ Adams didn’t have a computer or a laptop but he did have a fax where he could access incoming correspondence from wherever he was in the world at the time. Hunter, it seemed to me, fit the bill perfectly for my friend’s Corporate draw card.
Actually, several years on now I know Hunter still doesn’t use email but he does personally read all regular mail sent to him via snail mail. I posted a letter to him earlier today. I want him to come to Waipukurau. I think the Health system in the region is sick!
It made me smile to think he’ll pick it up in a week or so time and read it just like I used to when I was a kid getting mail from my friend Mathie who lived on another farm only about 30-odd kilometres away. We wrote all the time over the holidays, it’s what kids did. We were prolific writers!
Whenever people think of Patch Adams they think of the Robin Williams character who does indeed come across as inspiring but who frankly doesn’t have a patch on the REAL Patch. In fact the Williams-played character runs a very distant second. The real Hunter is a man of humanitarian substance and a tenacious social justice advocate. He helps sick people find their smiles. THAT’s inspiring!
Perhaps this rogue remembrance today was a reminder to me that people do and should matter more. That societal systems and structures are built to facilitate a better state of well-being for those who use them and ought not create further unnecessary burden to them. Yes, I know. All sounds so simple doesn’t it. I know it’s not but let’s not let that stand in the way of those small actions we CAN do ourselves.
So how do you BE a difference then? Hunter prescribes 10 Everyday Actions ANYONE can do to make a difference and I’m retelling them to you here in the hope that you’ll take just one and BE that difference wherever you happen to be:
1. Pick up all the rubbish in an area in your home town; be its guardian. Tell others about it.
2. Be friendly to everyone at all times; experiment outrageously.
3. Offer a shoulder or foot rub in any environment.
4. Always speak up for justice, no matter how much it costs.
5. Go once a week on a “house call” to a nursing home to cheer people up as a friend.
6. Turn off your TV and become interesting. Perform yourself.
7. Consider being silly in public. Sing out loud. Wear funny stuff.
8. Find ways to need a whole lot less money; share beyond belief.
9. Have potlucks frequently, with neighbours, co-workers, strangers. Work toward living in extended families.
10. Take your holidays in your own home town and spend the money working on projects there that help build community.
So here’s a divergent parting thought today. The poet Dante wrote, “In the middle of the journey of my life, I found myself in a dark wood, for I had lost the right path. Eventually I would find the right path, but in the most unlikely place.” Travel well my friends, learn to BE the difference as you go.
