YOU’D BETTER WATCH OUT…
…you’d better not cry; you’d better not pout; I’m telling you why…you know the rest.
Yup, it’s that time of year when the jolly old elf visits all the boys and girls, leaving the good ones presents and the naughty ones lumps of coal. Clearly Santa hasn’t consulted the EPA’s guidance about fossil fuels.
The holiday season offers us a respite from the chaos in our lives, often by providing a different chaos when preparing to celebrate the holidays.
The holiday season is a time we hopefully will pause and reflect on the year just passed and our hopes for the coming year. This past year has been tough on many of us. Some have lost loved ones, others continue to struggle in these economically turbulent times. Still others fear for the expected political turbulence in the coming year.
In my case, I had the roof cave in, literally. A two hundred to three hundred year old red oak tree crashed into my house during an intense early summer storm wiping out my roof, the side of my house, and destroying all one room’s contents. Given the strength of that storm, the nature and effect of climate change was placed into stark relief.
That, along with two surgeries (unrelated to the cave in), brought me into direct contact with insurance claims adjusters and insurance policies geared to mitigating the insurance company’s payout at the expense of the claimant’s loss.
Even with our life experience and resources, there were times we were in a pitched battle with the insurers. In one instance, I had a surgery postponed because of the insurance company’s failure to understand the nature of the medical issue to be resolved. My surgeon and her team at Brigham and Women’s aggressively advocated on my behalf, to no avail.
I spent hours telephoning the insurer asking to speak to someone in authority, likewise to no avail. After hours being ignored, referred, and cut off by the insurance company, I filed a complaint with my state Insurance Commissioner’s office which quickly moved to resolve the issue. They even filed a complaint to the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on my behalf.
The insurance company miraculously agreed to the surgery (it had an epiphany? Nah…) but by then my surgery was rescheduled for seven weeks later than the original date. But it raises the question of whether a person with less experience or perseverance dealing with faceless clerical bureaucrats, acting like “good Germans” following the company’s policies and manuals, would get through to someone capable of making an informed decision?
The roof created another conflict when we were in an emergency situation, the tree having collapsed our roof and the claims handler ignoring (if not responsive in any meaningful way) to any efforts to mitigate the hole in our roof! And another bad storm was in our immediate forecast. Making matters worse, the event occurred at an early morning hour on a Friday and the handler was trying to get ready for the weekend, leaving nobody we could contact in her absence.
Being the PITA that I can sometimes be, I found the email address of the company’s president (it’s amazing what you can find on the ‘net) and I emailed him to make him aware of our situation and his staff’s failure to provide the company’s promise of “world class service.” Let’s just say my presentation of our case to him was “expressive” of my feelings! The next day it was like day two at Woodstock. Peace and love were the orders of the day.
I mean it wasn’t like Hendrix or anything, but it got better. At least better to the point where we have a pretty smooth working relationship. Of course, there are issues that occasionally arise, but they quickly get resolved, more often than not in our favor.
However, during this calamity came forth a great gift of support by my neighbors, Steve and Mario, who aided us through the early stages of mitigation. Steve kept a watchful eye on the property while Mario, who evidently knows pretty much everyone in the state, arranged for a tree service to get the tree off the house.
This was all in the context of the initial (non)cooperation by the insurance company. With the forecast of more serious weather bearing down on it, I promised Mario, who in turn promised the tree company, that while I wasn’t sure how the company would be paid, they nevertheless would be paid. Upon that assurance, five hours later the tree was removed and the roof covered.
It was upon the tree’s removal that I wrote to the insurance company president informing him, among other things, that I took charge of the mitigation, that I expected the insurance company to pay the tree company’s invoice, and if I had to do their job in the future I’d bill them for my time.
I guess my point here is although the roof calamity was stunning and shocking, and the lack of response from people we pay to help us was dispiriting, two neighbors didn’t hesitate to jump in with help and support.
With all the obstacles we meet in our lives, people count. Family counts. Neighbors count. Friends count. Good people, selfless people count. Decency counts.
We get mired in the daily grind of our lives. For recreation, we stare at a screen. For interaction with others, we enter a chat room or surf the ‘net. While these are all good in their place and time, they also contribute to our isolation from real one to one human interaction.
Our withdrawal from human interaction makes us isolated, where our isolation can be exploited by those who seek to profit from our divisions.
We forget that most people are good and decent, wanting what we all want: security, good health, and most importantly the validation of our humanity. Humans are social animals who from the earliest times formed communities where each supported the others when called upon.
These communities can result in a love one has for the other. It is a selfless love that asks nothing in return. We support one another because we need to be supported. We assist others because it’s the right thing to do. We share with others an intimacy of community, and that intimacy affirms our own humanity.
It’s trite because it’s true, that there’s more that unites than divides us. And if we scratch the surface of our humanity, we’ll find that what ever separates us pales in comparison to what binds us.
Yet too many feel ignored, isolated, invisible. They live on the margins of our community, or worse unseen in the midst of our community. For these people, each day is a struggle to survive. These are the folks who work hard but never have enough money to provide for their families. These are folks who make us ashamed of their exploitation and resultant victimiz the hands of other, more prominent “respectable” members of our community.
These are the people who believe in the hope of America but never realize its promise. These are women who agitate for recognition of their equality; these are people who came to this country looking for the life we all wish for only to be vilified due to the color of their skin; and these are the people whose children are subjected to a narrow theology imposed on them in their schools.
These are the powerless among us. And stripped of their humanity they are made to feel forgotten.
The historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in his three-volume biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wrote that as a vibrant young man FDR lived a life free from want, with all of life’s possibilities open to him. He had a promising political future when in 1924, he was stuck down by polio. He nearly died but regained his health only to live his life as a paraplegic. He would never again stand or walk without the aid of heavy leg braces. For much of his life he was confined to a wheelchair.
What did FDR do to earn such a fate? Absolutely Nothing. He was felled by forces he never saw and were beyond his control. He did everything right in his life and still everything went wrong.
However, through grueling hard, painful work, he reclaimed his life – through the help from family, friends, and medical professionals. He returned to his life’s political path which culminated with his election in 1932 as the 32nd president of the United States.
FDR took office at a critical time in our history, The Great Depression. Tens of millions of lives were upended. Millions traveled the country in an often fruitless search for work. Millions more huddled in makeshift communities known as “Hoovervilles.”
The existing political and financial institutions extant at the time catastrophically failed. People who did everything required by society were victimized when everything went horribly wrong because of events beyond their control.
Faceless and voiceless, with unresponsive institutions, FDR worked to restore the essential humanity of what he called “The Forgotten Man.” No other political figure could understand the plight of the Forgotten Man more than Roosevelt. In a visceral way, he knew the plight of millions of Americans that cost them not only their material possessions, but in a very tangible way their innate humanity. He knew their plight because he had lived it.
FDR restructured our political and financial systems, which over time has expanded to our present infrastructure to address the basic needs of those still on society’s margins. This is an imperfect system, all too often a dehumanizing one that treats its clients like widgets rather than the humans they are. And it’s a system in desperate need of reform.
But this infrastructure was created and endures because of the empathy one man had for millions of others. While his actions were in large measure due to necessity, his approach to meeting the nation’s needs were born of the empathy FDR had for the struggles of millions to regain even a small degree of their self worth, their humanity.
This is a practical lesson of trying to lift people up when they are experiencing some of the lowest points of their lives. Whether due to economic losses or instability, or due to health challenges, or the result of an unexpected calamity, we all need the support of others who, whether meaning to or not, confirm the worth and basic humanity of those affected.
So, during this holiday season, I wish all of you friends like Steve and Mario, two guys who stepped in when we needed the help the most. This holiday season enjoy the company of family and friends. And remember, millions on the margins need those of us who can reach out to them if only to validate their intrinsic humanity.
This is especially true of this holiday season when we’re on the precipice of another turbulent era. We can only hope to get through this if we band together and respect each other’s humanity irrespective of our political or cultural differences. Doing so will provide a solid foundation for moving forward in the future.
Besides, to put it plainly, it’s the right and decent thing to do.
So, to all a HAPPY HOLIDAY season!
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