End Notes

Arthur: "It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to my mother."
Ford :   "Why, what did she say?"
Arthur: "I don't know, I never listened."
                                                       — Douglas Adams

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The Teachable Moment

I have found myself trying very hard to find teachable moments during the day. Usually these are during many of my walks back and forth across campus from my office to the main building, Helleck Hall.
It was a rather hot August morning as I strolled once more across the way. A young man's voice yells out to me from the shadow of the gazebo, "Mr. James I am doing ok now."
"What does that mean." I reply. They are used to getting a clarifying question to such a declaration on their current state of being.
"I am ready to go to my next program. I know I need to do that now." he says as he rewraps his broken hand which was a casualty of his frustration.
"You know Dean, often times we have to make good adult decisions to balance out the poor adult decisions we make as a young man."
He looks a bit puzzled and then replies "Ya, I guess so."
For the next ten brief minutes I share how most of us made some poor choices in our youth which require even tougher decisions to get out lives back on track. Then off I went to get those staff schedules I needed.

He was not in crisis, there was nothing going on which required me to stop. He had come to a conclusion about what he needed to do. Many others had helped him come to this point. I was just another person providing encouragement. No big deal. At least that's what I might of thought.
But as I was once more walking over to my office he comes up and walks a few steps with me and says "Thanks, I think I am going to be ok." He turns and then runs back for the building in his own goofy way.
I hope so I think to myself !

Ten minutes, that's all it took. Sure I could have just passed the time or said nothing at all but each encounter is an opportunity to promote change by taking advantage of the teachable moment. Sure they may happen in therapy, or in the treatment group, or maybe even in those educational sessions. But I find that many of these teachable moments occur in the daily living environment when and where you may least expect it. A well trained and dedicated line staff is the backbone of treatment in a residential setting since they will be the ones who will be there to take advantage of the teachable moment.
                                      — Larry James
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“It's your son on the phone: he says yes,
you can borrow his beach buggy tonight;
but can he borrow your credit card?”

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We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.

— Gwendolyn Brooks

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An efficiency expert was wrapping up his seminar and quietly cautioned the participants not to use the techniques at home. He then began picking up his materials.
A curious student yelled out, "Why not?"
The expert sighed and told his tale.
At supper one evening he observed his wife as she went through her usual super routine. She was taking one item at a time to the table and then one item at a time away from the table. He told her she could greatly improve her efficiency and free up some time if she would take more than one item at a time.
The expert began clearing up his materials again.
The voice yelled from the back, "Did it work, did it free up some time?"
"Absolutely," said the expert, "what she used to do in 20 minutes I now do in 7".

                          — Submitted by Tim Cooper

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Rescuing Hug

This is a picture from an article called The Rescuing Hug which details the first week of life of a set of twins.
Apparently each were in their separate incubators, and one was not expected to live.
A nurse fought against the hospital rules and placed the babies in one incubator.
When they were placed together the healthier of the two threw an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace. The smaller baby's heart rate stabilized and her temperature rose to normal.

“Let us not forget to embrace those whom we love.”

                — Submitted by Merle Wainwright

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