A week ago I was in Southwest Virginia, in Wise, for my annual volunteering in the free dental clinic run there by the Mission of Mercy of the Virginia Dental Association Foundation. In the past we have been at the Wise County Fairgrounds, along with the Remote Area Medical event, but that put us outside in very unpleasant conditions, with both the dentists and the patients subject to heat, rain, thunderstorms, etc. This year we move to College at Wise at the University of Virginia, inside at the convocation center (which of course also functions as the arena for basketball and volleyball). It was, to put it mildly, a very different kind of experience.
There were shuttles between our site and the Fairgrounds, so people still had access to medical and vision as well as dental (and there were a few dentists at the RAM site).
I want to offer some reflections on this experience in the greater context of the political mess in which our nation finds itself. While I was in Southwest, I was far less connected to news than I am at home, although did when not on site have access to cable and internet, and of course could check Twitter on my phone when I had free moments.
I want to add one other factoid before I begin — yesterday was the 75th birthday of Mick Jagger, which made me realize that perhaps the most significant hit of the Rolling Stones, Satisfaction, came out in 1965, 53 years ago. It is a reminder of how old I am, as well as how much I have seen/experienced, which also is part of the context of this post.
If interested, keep reading. If not, I fully understand.
If I don’t push it, my driving time to Wise is about 6.5 hours. I drove down last Wednesday, and by 8:15 AM on Thursday was on site helping with set-up. I was there until 5:15 that day spent about 12 hours each day Friday and Saturday, and was onsite from 5:30 until leaving 8:45 on Sunday.
We saw fewer total patients than in the past, in part because it was somewhat more difficult for people to access medical and vision at the Fairgrounds and come to us for dental. But we provided just as much dental service for several reasons. First, the working conditions were so much better, which meant the dentists were more efficient. Also, because we did not have long lines, people spent less time waiting. And we were able to offer patients more services — more filling, or combining extractions, cleanings, and reconstruction — 2 or all three.
Let me note that I was in an area heavily supportive of Trump: Trump beat Clinton 79.9 to 17.9 in Wise County. This is coal country, although in fact there are very few jobs in the industry, and Virginia actually now has more jobs in solar than there are active coal miners.
Many of the dentists with whom I have developed friendships by working with them over the past decade are themselves very conservative, with more than a few acknowledging having voted for Trump. And yet, on their own, several, knowing my politics, volunteered to me that they have increasingly been turn off by Trump, and one even volunteering that in his case he was now thinking of voting straight Democratic this coming Fall.
There are lots of reasons for the disillusionment. The biggest single reason is seeing Trump and the Republicans doing all they can to destroy the Affordable Care Act.
Remember, these are dental professionals who are volunteering their time and skill to treat people for free. They come from all over the Commonwealth, and from other states as well (one who comes every year even if only for one day is from Indiana, although he had some family connections in the region).
Perhaps you might understand better when i describe the following. On Friday, before we started, we had a meeting of all volunteers to address a number of issues, but that meeting started with remarks by Dr. Terry Dickinson, executive director of the Virginia Dental Association and the person who came up with the notion of these Missions of Mercy. Terry reminded us that this was the 100th Mission, going back to the first event near Wise at Lonesome Pine Airport almost two decades ago. He also emphasized that what we were doing should not be necessary if only our nation would address dental health the way it should be addressed.
That dentist who said he might vote straight Dem? He taught me years ago to always thank the people who come, to recognize that we serving them benefit as much if not more than those receiving dental services do.
My role at these events has changed over the years. I used to assist dentists in the triage section. Now that is done by dental assistants and first and second year dental students. At this event I was put in charge of bringing people into the building,managing the overall flow through registration and medical screening before we sent them downstairs to dental triage. We were able to bring people into the building and into sites in the balcony to get them out of rain, then as needed take them to be registered. The registration process was much quicker than at the Fairgrounds, because we only had a dental form to address — there some people were filling out forms for medical and vision as well.
I was a glorified traffic cop but also a bit of a logistics person, keeping track of numbers coming in, and discussing with Terry how many more we would screen each day, and thus also being able to tell those arriving in the later part of the afternoon that we would register, screen, and triage them, but that they would have to come back the following day for treatment.
We had several affiliated organizations with tables with information. I moved them so that those coming could more easily go past those relevant to them even before we seated them for registration.
Each of us volunteering had specific tasks that contributed to the overall positive experiences of those receiving treatment.
As I drove home on Sunday, I reflected on the days I had spent. What I did required no special skills, but a fair amount of patience. I have at times noted here what my wife calls my mantra, the statement of George Fox that we are to walk gladly across the earth answering that of God in each person we meet. Spending several days assisting in this Mission of Mercy was clearly answering that of God. It was important that I greeted each person with a smile, that I did all I could to keep the experience as positive as possible.
I felt the 3+ days I spent volunteering did more good for this country than anything else I could have done with that time.
That is in no way to diminish or demean those efforts done in registering people to vote, in educating people about issues. I am speaking only for myself.
Yes, I am a decent writer and speaker, whose words can on occasion move other people.
But those words come from many places, and in my case my experiences in doing this kind of volunteering is as much a source of what I write as is my experiences as a classroom teacher and advocate for educational policies that meaningfully contribute to student learning.
I have been home now for the better part of the week. Once we finally had a day without rain I was able to do things like mow the lawn.
In the interim I read books and online material, watched news and analysis, and reflected — on my experiences at Wise and on the world in which I find myself.
While I drove both ways I listened to a lot of music. Some of it goes back more than 60 years — the Fifties channel on Sirius XM. Some is even older — I can totally lose myself in Bach, whether in listening or in playing on a keyboard or singing in a choir.
At my age reflection on the meaning and purpose of life is not uncommon. Nor is contemplating the end of my life. Each year more of those I have known pass on. One aunt by marriage just celebrated her 90th birthday, for which I traveled to Long Beach NY where for the first time since the death of my father more than 20 years ago I saw some first and second cousins and their families, in some cases meeting great nephews and nieces for the first time.
I chose to move to 8th grade US History for the forthcoming school year, meaning I will not be teaching current US Government & Politics, although current affairs are clearly unavoidable. Our understanding of the present can be shaped by our understanding of the preceding history. Similarly what we think of the present can color how we look at the past.
I am sitting in my local Starbucks, with earpods in listening to a random selection of the music on my computers — “Classical,”, country, rock, jazz, folk, etc. I am 72 years old. I would like to be able to spend my days reading, listening to and playing music. Perhaps I might want to try to write a book. I enjoy having either of the cats curled up next to me, demanding some attention. Were I not still working full time I would almost certainly get a dog, although not at my age a puppy, more likely a mature rescue.
Yet I still have to plan my teaching. When the school year starts the tasks associated with being a classroom teacher will, including the commute, occupy at least 10.5 hours a day M-F, and may approach 12.
I still teach because I enjoy it, but also because I have financial responsibilities.
In some ways politics — which for me includes blogging — has slipped down my list of priorities.
The last President older than me was the first Bush.
I no longer have any delusions of making a “big” impact upon the world in which I live.
Were you to ask me my priorities, Leaves on the Current (my wife) would come first. She still has her blood cancer, it does impact her life although she tries to keep a very full schedule. We have, at her request, cleared a full week which we are going to spend together, based at Massanutten, seeing friends around C’Ville and in the Shenandoah Valley, walking in the woods, and NOT spending a lot of time obsessing about our professional lives nor about politics. Perhaps later this year we will try to work in a trip to Italy. Included in my commitment to my spouse is our joint commitment to our now only two rescued cats. They are our family, and meeting their needs and desires remains a critical part of our lives.
My second priority is the students entrusted to my care. While I can look back and some of my political activities and some of what I have written with a certain amount of pride, my longest and most significant legacy is the students I have taught, beginning in December of 1995 when I became a classroom teacher. I am periodically reminded of this when I receive emails, or get Friend requests or desires to connect on LinkedIn — I have received two such in the past 24 hours. I hope I can offer them the opportunity to think more critically, write and speak more clearly, and act with integrity, whatever their particularly religious, political, or ethical persuasions may be.
Next comes what I just did. The volunteering I do with MOM keeps me humble, reminds me of my connections with so many people I might otherwise neither know nor understand.
As I look back, the three institutions that I have said have had the greatest impact on my life have been Haverford College, the Marine Corps, and Interlochen (where I spent 8 summers at what was then National Music Camp). After this weekend I would have to add my participation in these events at Wise. With the exception of one year where for health reasons I could not, I have done at least one such Mission annually. Like being a Marine, I have had my horizons broadened in many ways. Like Haverford and Interlochen, I have formed lasting friendships I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to experience.
There is a tale about St. Anthony, the great Egyptian monastic and ascetic of the very early church. I do not remember it clearly. It was when Anthony perhaps was getting a bit full of himself and God granted him a vision of an “ordinary” man in Alexandria, perhaps a doctor, who treated each person with integrity and fullness of attention, that vision demonstrating to Anthony that true holiness could take many forms.
When I became an Orthodox Christian about 4 decades ago I seriously considered going to seminary. I can remember one man I greatly respected at one seminary, himself a layman, who asked me why I wanted to be a priest, why couldn’t I just be a good green grocer.
I have also at times reminded myself of some words from the Clint Eastwood character Dirty Harry Callahan that (“a man’s got to know his limitations.”
Mick Jagger is almost 3 years older than me. Donald Trump is a bit more than two weeks younger. Like them, I am now approaching the sunset of my earthly life.
I don’t think I obsess about it, but I do not ignore it.
I certainly am willing to still consider events in the future. While my mother passed at 47, my father lived until his 84th birthday, and several of his siblings lived into their 90s, as did my mother’s brother. Yes, I could die tomorrow. My health is far from perfect, as I am reminded by the 10 pills I consume each day.
At my age, perhaps one is tempted to look back, to see if one can justify one’s existence. Did I in fact make a positive difference by my existence, by my words and actions?
I can remember too many occasions of failures. I am also reminded of things I have done that were positive.
I think back to Dostoevsky and a parable told in The Brothers Karamazov about the one good deed an otherwise venal woman had done — a single onion she had once given a beggar. But as her guardian angel attempts to pull her out of Hell and into Heaven using that onion, others grab her legs and she tries to beat them off arguing “this is MY onion” and it breaks and falls backs.
I know that each day I encounter many opportunities to make a difference in the world around me, in the lives of people I encounter, even if I do not really know them. It can be offering a smile, letting a person go through an intersection before me, letting them have the parking spot to which we both arrive at the same time. Sometimes it may be letting go of my impatience at someone who gets on a 15 or less items line at the supermarket with 20.
Volunteering in these free dental events keeps me grounded. It reminds me that I can be gentle and patient, as my cats also remind me of that.
When I was younger I was a decent athlete, and someone with a huge amount of energy and stamina. Compared to then, I am now deficient in both.
Yet perhaps I am now more tolerant of many human peccadilloes and failings. Many, not all.
I have even less tolerance for hypocrisy, intolerance, and meanness.
What is clear is that I am less than ever shaped by what others may think of me. Slowly, slowly, I become more comfortable in taking stands for what I believe.
But my way of doing so may not be yours. I understand that others may not make the choices about how I use what time and energy I have left. So be it.
Last week I spent several days doing something important. I served other people. What I did required no real skill, unlike the dentists who treated those who came to us. To US, because I was a part of their experience, and I tried to make my part as positive as I could.
This is a personal reflection. Perhaps some of it will speak to some who read it.
I wrote it because I needed to.
Do with it what you will.
Peace.