Quest for PQ: The Dream of Major Bull Project #18
Posted on 06/08/09 11:30 AM| by Kraig
The Reason Why We Do
Since I normally travel so much for my work, I am not used to the transparency that comes with working in an office. The various injuries I have suffered (shoulder and ankle) are telegraphed as a source of conversation for my colleagues. My answer is normally pretty general, but for some reason when my friend Franz saw me hobbling around the office one day after an unusually brutal hill sprint routine, it got me to thinking.
His comment was very simple; “Todd, why do you keep putting your body through this?” My response to him came in the form of one of those Wayne’s World flashbacks to when I was a paramedic on the mean streets in Michigan.
I recall getting a “man in distress” call one night to a residential address. The police were already on scene as were the fire department. They looked utterly bemused at the sight before them of a young man in his mid 30′s who was continuously banging his head against the back door to his family’s home. As I approached him, I could see he had been at it a while by the look of the very large contusion on his head and the slight trickle of blood down the side of his face.
The police and fire had done their very best, short of tackling the guy, to get him to stop. He just continued to BANG, BANG, BANG his head against the door. As the senior medic on scene, it was my call as to what to do with this guy. I had been to the house once before on another call. I was familiar with some of his history of mental illness and non-compliance with his medication. He had recently been released from a care home and was not transitioning well to his new, yet familiar surroundings. He wasn’t dangerous, just confused.
I walked up to him so as not to startle him and called out his name.
“Hey Richard, it’s Todd…you know…with the ambulance.”
“Yeah…Todd, ” he said, not missing a beat of BANG, BANG, BANG on the door.
The question I asked him that day in his back yard was as simple as the question my friend Franz asked me just the other day in the office after seeing me favouring my sore feet and legs. It was the simplicity of Richard’s answer that struck me as so profound then and the meaning of it returned to me in my own reply.
“Richard, why are you banging your head against the door?” I asked calmly.
“Cause it feels so good when I stop.” was his casual reply.
