Today was a good day to work outside in the Garden but I had a higher calling from a friend. My friend has been in terrific pain for many years, had many operations, seen many doctors, and tried a number of pain control treatments and remains in pain. Family and some friends have abandoned her and she now lives in some kind of apartment building with minimal care. She has a van she purchased before she got too sick to drive and now lays in the backseat of van when she needs to go somewhere. When she does get out it is many hours of many stops for her and her driver which nowadays is I.
When I became 70 last year I said I was going to do less driving of friends in need and it worked out for most friends but her. She tried many agencies and has some good caseworkers who find housing and care for her but cannot use any public and private services for transportation for lack of finances or because of the delay she would face. Today I spend 5 1/2 hours running errands with her or without her. If I sound like I am feeling sorry for myself and that is probably true. However, I do realize that with ever burden comes blessings that greatly outdo the effort.
But getting old and with some physical and psychological needs of myself I will try to find her some other person that can share the burden/blessings of being her friend.
Society is becoming less and less concerned about its most vulnerable citizens, poor, alone and ill. We have relegated help and aide to agencies and organizations, especially for those who are most vulnerable.
In the Judgment of Nations parable in Matthew 25 of the Gospel, Jesus tells how nations will be judged in the last judgment by how they treated the least of the people. By that standard the USA is not doing so well. Making home visit to people in need in our St. Vincent De Paul conference, seeing how hard it is for persons like my friend to struggle with life and knowing how persons with brain disorders are treated, mostly in prison and jails, makes me sad and wanting to despair. However, in a way these experiences help me appreciate my life, family and privileges more and drives me to persist money from sales of Catholic Churches in Milwaukee in the poorest, most segregated area be used for the Cry of the Poor and to stop the local Jesuit Catholic University to stop teaching war and killing.
So the garden can wait; today it was a time to reap some blessing.
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