The zealot tree

Trapping evil spirits....I like ice cream. I really do like ice cream. One story from our family lore that I frequently tell new consumers, is that I learned the actual value of a batch of ice cream - when I had to make it. Now that I regularly make batches of communication starter, the story seems as fresh as that hot summer day.

In the early 1960's, the ice cream technology available at my house was the wooden bucket fitted w/ hand crank. My Mom made it a very simple transaction for me: you help make it, you get to help eat it! The result of what seemed like three hours (I swear!) of hard relentless churning of that peach bit + creme anglais, was that we had fluffy - and slightly saline - peach ice cream for our hot summer party. I had churned away the evil spirits of lassitude, powered by the desire for a cool summer treat. My left arm also grew back, within two weeks.

Now, the joy of a thick, frozen bite of ice cream is dulled by political backlash directed at an ice cream company. This company leads its business model with its own social values; it has chosen to restrict its product to a country, whose policy is antithetical to these values. Refer to:

https://www.jordantimes.com/opinion/james-j-zogby/lessons-ben-jerrys-boycott

I like Israel. I really like Israel. One ice cream company is not bringing down the state of Israel. State governments in the US, who see themselves as the guardian of Israel's legitimacy within the country, have swung the battle - axe of politics down on this company. It's ludicrous, and almost pathetic that Israel supporters fear an ice cream company. Rather than freeze up Israel's management of its internal affairs, the company shared its moral vision to illuminate the moral shortcomings of the nation. 

The political strike against the ice cream company embodies an act of zealotry. As the late Arkansas journalist Paul Greenberg put it, a zealot either agrees with you too strongly, or disagrees with you strongly. 

Some writers, like Reza Aslan, say Jesus was a zealot. Other writers like Eric Hoffer might point to the example of an Obama voter, becoming a Trump voter in the next cycle, as the zealot's mark. Not strictly is the intensity of a person's devotion considered, but also how the focus on the devotion blinds the zealot to the full measure of that devotion. What could possibly be wrong with trying to punish Ben and Jerry's parent company, for B&J supporting a people they see as oppressed? 

I really like people, like Bronowski, who have strong opinions. Whether they force me to work to eat, defend my favorite dessert, or justify a clinical judgement - I do enjoy the arguments. These days, I see a lot of zealotry, in the forms of inflexibility, in the field of CSD. It could be coming from the training a clinician receives in pre-service education, or through subsequent continuing education. It also can bleed through from some social - political movements that occupy your mind, but that are tangential to this CSD gig you've secured. It could even be as simple as letting the pressures of real life get in the way, by getting entrenched in clinical 'ruts', doing the same activities with persons carrying similar diagnoses. A clinician who participates in research studies, may surmise that the protocol is always the thing. Everything.

However you delineate the actions of persons on the train of a clinical/research movement; - when every case becomes a strict research protocol, without back - channel communication that can be crucial to the consumer moving towards her desired outcomes, it's zealotry. We are selling a service, albeit a professional service, and it seems sensible to deliver the service the consumer bought.

Zealotry = evil spirits? Only in the sense that your perceptions, your judgement can be clouded by adherence to a narrow frame of reference (dogma, allegiance to mentor/leader), that has political as well as scientific implications to your effective practice.

I really like the bottle tree. It reminds me of how important it is, to trap and stow away things that don't belong - things that can prevent you from safe passage on your clinical journey.