Tuesday we went to a "knee class" designed for those facing knee replacement surgery. It was a very interesting day--they told us everything you would ever want to know about knees. The nurse/educator even passed around a model of the knee with the replacement part. Every detail was covered including what to expect with the surgery, the time you will spend with the physical "terrorist," the participatory nature of the rehabilitation, the hospitalization, the do's and don'ts post surgery. On the advice of our daughters, I took my laptop (they know what a copious note-taker I am) and typed more than three pages of notes (thank Heavens for a summer school typing class in the summer of fifth grade). She also told us that rehabilitation facilities are reserved for those with extenuating circumstances, so rehabilitation will be done at home (The teacher said "Hospital beds are for sick people, and these are just knee replacements").
She also talked about assistive devices--crutches, walkers and the like. There are also long sticks with sponges on the end to facilitate bathing, long sticks to pick things up and reach in high places. Then she showed a device which would help the person put on socks. When I saw this, I whispered to my husband "I will pull up your socks for you." I didn't give this phrase much thought until I mentioned it to a friend and she told me (she fancies herself a nurse), that touching is really important during any rehabilitation procedure.
Life is a combination of so many intertwined events--I facilitated a class at church Thursday night and the subject was "Extravagant Love" (Bible readers can go to John 2: 1-8). As I talked
to my friend, I realized that "pulling up socks" is an example of that extravagant love. It is a gesture of humility and love. We all need to engage in "pulling up socks" for all whom we love.
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3 comments:
I love this blog! If we take the time to help someone "pull up their socks" how rewarding that would be for the person pulling up the socks and for the person having their socks pulled up. It goes back to babies and the importance of touch to newborns especially those that are sick. Just the closeness and warmth can be so healing. So, from the lyrics of Diana Ross and the Supremes, " Reach out and touch somebody's hand, Make this world a better place, Yes, we can!!! (changed the lyrics a little, but so appropriate).
Thank you so much for sharing this with me. Now that's what I'm talking about...extravagant love is doing the "thing" what ever it is with humility and love. I loved this. Did you send this to Mary? I'd like this to go out to the group in attendance Thursday.
felt something similar to what you described, a number of years ago, when we used to take our group walks. One of the times that we walked downtown near the convention center, I was looking at all the new buildings , including the convention center. (It must have been in the 80's.) I was thinking that some of them were beautiful and some were ugly. What made me see some one way and not the other? Then I had an "Aha moment" and saw that it was their geometry that made them that way. Their proportions, the scale, the blending of the angles and repetition of certain shapes. That's when I started having my students do their projects on the geometry of architecture for humanities geometry. To this day, I still look at buildings and even houses from that viewpoint, seeing how all the parts fit together for either a pleasing or displeasing experience.
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