Caring is encountering

 Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Director, in a “Laborcare Journal” article, talk about “meeting”

(By Gianluca Favero and Mariella Orsi)

“Writing, for me, is intellectual life and also spiritual experience … it allows me to deepen the mystery of reality.”
(Raimon Panikkar)

This issue 14 of Laborcare Journal leads us to reflect on how Care, in all its declinations, begins with “meeting the other,” even at the moment we utter a short word that, in this increasingly “liquid” everyday life, is less and less used: “good morning.”

If we are no longer able to say hello, how can we expect to be able to build a relationship, especially if, this one, is “of care”?

Ilvo Diamanti, in his book “Syllabary of Sad Times”[1] writes:” … When I meet someone, alone, it is difficult for me to pretend not to see them. I look away. But then why? So I greet with a nod, with a good morning (or) a nod of the head, some respond. They re-change. (Women, especially.) Others just gesture in embarrassment. A little surprised. Still others do not respond. They don’t say or do anything. They shoot straight. As if they haven’t seen me. And maybe it’s true, that’s just the way it is. Used to being and being alone.”

To meet … greeting means making, in a positive way, a forcing against a society in which, more and more, there is a progressive weakening of social ties and relationships.

The tendency we sense is to become , more and more, a society bent on its own individual interests.

It becomes, therefore, important to draw our gaze back to moments of everyday life that offer an opportunity for each of us to care for the other by recognizing and safeguarding, first and foremost, that dignity that is often “forgotten.”

Greeting, listening indeed, learning “to listen” and dedicating Time to be able to do so allows us to give even more meaning to the work of Caring.

Eugenio Borgna, in his recent book “Talking to Each Other. Lost Communication,”[2] writes about listening, ” … There are infinite ways of listening, and one is not capable of listening, in the hospital in particular, unless one keeps in mind the patients’ expectations and hopes, and attunes oneself to their experience of time, of lived time, which has nothing to do with the time of the hands of the clock: of measurable time.”

From volunteering to an everyday professional “lived” in prison, passing through the loneliness of the “invisible,” the end of a life or bringing “a stranger” home, these are “looks” that urge us to practice the art of S.T.A.R.E thought of, written and read as an acronym for Silence – Time – Listening – Respect – Empathy which, in our opinion, should be the “human” aspect of Care.

It is precisely this “S.T.A.R.E.” that has been taken as an essential and indispensable characteristic, almost a statute, by the volunteers of the FILE Foundation who work in the field of lenitherapy.

Crucially, it is, in fact, to learn relational skills and attitudes inspired by the approach proposed by Canadian physician Max Chochinov termed “Dignity Therapy,”[3] whose goal is to improve the experience of the end-stage of life by helping the sick person (and his or her family members) preserve personal identity and affirm their values.

As is highlighted in many articles in this issue of LJ, the gaze of the other challenges us and can guide us in a helping relationship based on respect for dignity and listening to real needs.
In this commitment there are no more or less important roles-health or social professionals, volunteers of various Associations, family members of sick or disabled people, sensitive citizens-all can contribute to improving the Community in which they work and live through behaviors inspired by real solidarity.

[1] Universale Economica Saggi Rossi, Feltrinelli Editore, 2011.

[2] Einaudi, 2015

[3] Harvey Max Chochinov, “Dignity Therapy – Words for the Time that Remains,” ed. Il Pensiero Scientifico Editions, 2015

• It is possible to view the full issue of the magazine at http://www.laborcare.it”

• Read other published articles

Source

• Laborcare Journal (Editorial No. 14)

Image

• Image digitally created by spazio + spadoni