History does have a habit of mimicking a favorite recipe, with the passage of time. For example, some periods of history need to be set aside for rest - George Floyd and the racial reckoning, in a pressure cooker. Other historical events are better presented after being chilled, like a freshly assembled fruit salad - Emmett Till memorials in Mississippi being desecrated by bullets, anyone? When historians are afraid of a historical epoch becoming lost to the national discourse, they might spice it up - ergo, a recent book on Lincoln that focuses on the 16th President's influencers. Other historical times, they might be pepped up by garnishes and textures. When you look at that sweeping cinematic period in the US's recent history, you can't not think of World War II, and the famous retort an American general gave a German general - when faced with the prospect of surrender:
An account of General McAuliffe's message to his troops can be found at:
https://www.archivesfoundation.org/documents/surrender-nuts-gen-anthony-mcauliffes-1944-christmas-message-troops/
We in the CSD professions are affected by, adorned with, weighted by, dragged down under, swept along by, and uplifted with events of history. Whether we like outside events infiltrating our therapy environments, they do and they will. Your school may have experienced a mass shooting, or it could have happened at the mall a few blocks away. Surges in respiratory diseases with cold weather restrict the movements of your senior clients, and sometimes you, if you work in assisted living or memory care. Your hospital may be crippled by a stenosis of cash flow and dehydration of supply stores, because reimbursements are being returned to your healthcare facility at the speed of Congress.
To borrow from the Honorable Elizabeth Warren: yet, we persist. Our charge from the professions, and our guidance given by our mentors, teachers, colleagues and our support circles, include finding hope in every day we share with our consumers. They include giving the gifts of patience and insight; of persistence, humility and grace; of strength, joy and vision. Every instance we have to help people we serve, move closer to that quality of life they desire - that's the greatest gift we can want - ever. In the face of often seismic startling cataclysms that often do rock our everyday worlds, we dedicate ourselves to being that stability our consumers need. We in the professions offer that hospitality, that sanctuary and that energy that persons we serve, might need.
And so amongst the hierarchies of metaphors that come from history - a therapy room might be a machine gun nest from World War I. The room could also be seen as the suffragette march of 1913, when Ida B. Wells taught a lesson of true courage. History also holds the story of Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's hero; Fabi Hirsch, Gabby Giffords' SLP, is another. Was Roald Dahl a hero for his wife, Patricia Neal, and then his son? See: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/12/roald-dahl-medical-pioneer-stroke-hydrocephalus-measles-vaccination. Dahl's legacy is rather tarnished by some parts of his documented belief system. See: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230530-roald-dahl-the-fierce-debate-over-rewriting-childrens-classics. Perhaps the author's life needs a tenderizing with an acidic agent, so that we can know what's important to recognize in history, and what can be strained out.
The professions teach that we often act as history's strainer - that we help our consumers and their supports decide what to keep, what to give away and what is needed. During the holiday season in the US, let us all let anxiety, depression, fear and hopelessness take a holiday. Often. Stay stalwart.
