Sunday, October 5, 2008

What is normal?

I feel bad about a situation I was involved in today. After the service Rev. Pat asked me if I would let Don (a pseudonym), a mentally ill queer youth, take a shower. She told me I would have to kick him out afterward. This was after the service. I said yes. After he got started in the bathroom I went upstairs to lock the third floor door and had to wait around a little bit for gender people to finish up. When I went back downstairs Don was still in the bathroom. I started encouraging him to come out. In the meantime, someone, without my permission, called 911. EMS and the cops ended up coming and taking Don to Bellevue. I feel like we tricked Don. Also, the other people involved apparently believe that Don should be forced to take his medicine and behave normally. But I don’t feel that way at all. Who knows what “normal” feels like to Don? Maybe “normal” is terrible for Don. Or maybe his meds have bad side effects for him. Anyway, who are we “normal” people to decide how someone else should live his life? So I ended up angry. I am still working on getting over my anger. I pray no harm comes to Don as a result of ending up at Bellevue.

1 comment:

Lucky S. Michaels said...

sorry you had to handle this kind of situation. they happen too often!