Yesterday's post is a Suzanne Arms quote that speaks to the idea that peace is incarnated through experience. In my last few days of observations I have witnessed the extreme opposite of
respect and kindness... at the beginning of life.
Francesco is now a week old and I have been able to spend at least a little time with him and his parents 5 out of the 7 days of his life. Yesterday the family returned to the hospital to have their check up where the newborn is again examined, blood is drawn yet one more time, and weight gain is assessed.
If I were to write up the whole story I would take up a page or two and I would have lined up a dozen negative experiences by insensitive and disrespectful people so I'll go right to the heart of it. This little baby who I am calling Francesco, after the Saint who was the most peace loving man, who has only asked us for peace during his entry into the world, was treated so disrespectfully while he was being undressed and examined, I was left with the idea of how a Nazi might have undressed a newborn who was headed to the gas chambers. His clothes were literally yanked off of him and when they got to his head, the nurse tugged on the onesie, no longer supporting his body, which was now dangling by being caught in the neck opening of the onesie. One final yank and it popped off and she lowed him down to the changing table by an arm. She then got out her needle and stabbed him in the heel, as fast as she could, as if she was in a race with time. She stabbed him again to get more blood, each time with absolutely no sense of having a person in her hands.
I can't imagine how this nurse would have felt having been treated like this. But in the end, maybe that is what is behind it. Maybe she has been treated like this, maybe as a newborn she was handled this way. Maybe as a young girl she was mistreated and abused. Maybe as a wife she was treated disrespectfully. Maybe she is only doing what has been done to her.
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