Sometimes power gets hungry.
Sometimes power wants a snack.
A young woman wants to see her boyfriend. They both live in the same agency but within different group homes. The agency has been adhering to what they call 'best practice' as determined by the province they live in. It's all to keep people safe. Doing something for someone's own good is sometimes a nearly invisible tyranny.
This couple had been moving towards marriage. They have the support of both families and nearly all their friends. But like many all of their planning and dreaming go put on hold at the arrival of the Coronavirus. Their province responded swiftly and suddenly, without warning, they were in quarantine. They never got to say goodbye to each other and they weren't allowed to connect. When asked why "the house phone needs to be kept free for an emergency call."
Many of the staff are not supportive of the relationship. They don't believe that the two understand what love and marriage mean. They don't think they will be able to survive without 24 staffing. "And what about babies?" is the refrain that comes from almost every level of management.
From the parent's point of view, their daughter and future son-in-law are on an unnecessary lockdown. Now that there are bubbles, surely they would be in each other's, but it seems that bubbles are for baths not for unwanted and unsupported relationships. At every turn, COVID-19 is raised as the reason.
Trust me, I'm not an anti-masker and I'm as frightened of the virus as any other 67-year-old diabetic. But I think that when prejudice and limitations are put on someone 'for their own good' it had better be 'for their own good.'
Even the slightest creativity could solve this.
This is what I'm consulting on I said to both parties?
We zoomed to a solution in less than half an hour. This is not because I'm a master negotiator, it's because it was easily understood that the power that the agency had, didn't need to take a bite out of the lives of two people in love.
AND, they are letting me tell the story.
Love wins! Glad you were able to cut through the BS for these two, Dave!
ReplyDeleteOfficiousness and power have many faces. It's astonishing anything ever gets done!
ReplyDeleteThey shouldn't have to call in YOUR power for these young adults.
The lack of concern, in general, for those whose support systems have been cut during the pandemic, is horrible. People who are in our higher levels of care are really struggling for the human contact that makes their lives worth living.
The people in love + the agency?
ReplyDelete[as in "Who can tell your story"]...
And I loved the two opening lines about what power does when it wants a snack.
Thanks, Dave - I got a bit confused by one of your sentences:
ReplyDeleteThis is what I am consulting on I said to both parties
I don't understand what that means. Perhaps
I said "Is this what I've been consulted on???".
is what you meant? But would that have been to said both parties? I would have thought only to the agency?
Anyway, it didn't spoil my reading - It's a great piece!