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April 17, 2006
She often spent
her days laying on the floor. And because it was a home for the
mentally disturbed, they let her.
Life at ground
level looks different, a world of ankles of infinite varieties,
delicate and sexy, sturdy and stout. White shoes, all the same by
institutional standards, are all different when one spends enough time
watching them pass at eye level, down on the floor.
Size five and a
half passes, clean white laces tied into perky even bows, and without
even looking up to her face, I can know it’s my favorite nurse. Size
twelve, white turned tan, flecked with black and brown streaks, and I
know it’s the custodian who cannot help but splash brown water against
his shoes as he mops and cleans each day.
Life retains its
magic and complexity, even when viewed from the floor. Table legs,
metal and wood, with caps at the base to protect the shine of
institutional wax. All legs have caps, but not all are the same.
Table legs setting on metal caps or housed in plastic shoes. Chair
legs with felt pads that slide when you push out from the table. Some
caps roll, wheels, rubber and quiet, one inch wheels that rotate as
the cart is turned or five inch wheels fixed by a bracket to always go
straight.
None of this
matters, unless you live on the floor at ground level. But not many
of us try it. Living there day after day for years simply because
you want to live there is enough to classify you as mentally
disturbed. You are put away, assigned a room, given a diagnosis and
proscribed a treatment.
This is the
world where Morrie Schwartz once found himself, one of a staff of
professionals assigned to help people like the woman living on the
floor. Because this was an institution where people were expected to
be mentally disturbed, their daily routine had expanded to include
walking around the woman down below.
But because this
was also an institution dedicated to helping, the professionals
persisted in trying to reach her. People with black leather shoes
continued to coax the woman off the floor, and when this failed, they
pulled chairs close enough to her to talk. Using the professional
insights of college PhDs, they did their best to reach this woman down
under. But whatever the progress, it never was enough to bring her up
from the floor into a chair next to them.
Morrie Schwartz,
in this world for a short time, studied the situation with interest.
It appeared that every PhD solution had been tried. But Morrie had a
wisdom not handed out with diplomas.
One day,
breaking the barrier between the world up above and the world down
below, Morrie approached the woman laying on the floor. He bent, he
lowered, and finally he laid himself down on the floor, meeting the
woman there in her own world.
It is a touching
moment in Tuesdays with Morrie…Morrie laying on the floor of
the asylum in order to speak with a crazy person. Sacrificing his
professional stature, laying on the floor and accepting her world, it
is enough to help us understand the heart of a human being who has
found it difficult to deal with the world up there. Laying on the
floor is the only way to tell a human heart I understand how you
feel. It is the only way to create a door into the upper world
for the woman to enter.
Humility allows
us to look into the eyes of another human being as equals. It gives
away a part of our ego to another, raising us both together to a level
we could never have achieved alone.
It is no
surprise that as Morrie took time to enter her world, the woman on the
floor found reason to enter his. Over time, gaining stature and
confidence from the man who had the confidence to give away his own,
she rose from the floor, choosing chairs more often than not, having
finally found a reason to make life “up there” matter.
It is no
surprise, then, to find humility at the center of eternal wisdom for
living a perfect life.
When pride
comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
[Prov
11:2 NIV]
It is the
foundation on which the Golden Rule rests, do unto others as you
would have them do unto you. Without humility, this is
impossible.
Who is wise and
understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds
done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
[James
3:13 NIV]
As we seek ways to
mend hearts and restore love, our solutions will not come from higher
institutions. Nor will advanced research perfect our techniques for
creating love. Love grows from the ground up, only when we are
willing to set the seeds for love by setting ourselves lower than
dust.
I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility.
I don't mean by humility, doubt of his power. But really great men
have a curious feeling that the greatness is not of them, but
through them. And they see something divine in every other man and
are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
John Ruskin
(1819-1900)
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New
International Version (NIV), Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan.
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