Sense of the Invisible

Only a blind person can really talk about the invisible. In meeting people, even though I cannot see anything, I have a mental picture of their appearance.  I’m often disappointed when a sighted person corrects me on my mental impressions.  For instance, governor Palin from Alaska seemed blonde to me when I heard her speak.  It is rare, even for people who I pay to work for me, for anyone to mention activity of sight which they just take for granted.  One day, a taxi driver was driving me somewhere and he said, “Doc I wish you could see the azaleas and Dogwood, all is in full bloom now”  This was the very first time that I knew the color of spring had arrived. No one had mentioned it and, so it is with everything. 

The entire world would have already been converted to Christ if Christians lived their faith and convictions before the world, so that the world could see that Christians are different, and everyone would want what they have.  The greatest roadblock to Christianity is “Christians”.  Mohandas Gandhi said, “I would have been a Christian if I had not known so many Christians”.  Those he had known were counterfeit.  There is a sense of the invisible when someone knows God.  Like the proverbial candle, you do not put it under a bushel.  One unbelieving male, when leaving my house recently said, “Tom, don’t change. You are the only hope I have”,, he had a need to believe in someone. 

The Red Cross was founded in this country by Clara Barton (1821- 1912) in the19th  century. Previously, since 1550, a red cross had been worn on medical workers with Christian influence, even the crusaders. But, in 1863, the red cross was formerly organized in Europe.  This follows the 1859 book of Henri Durant, A memory of Solferino .  He had seen the need for medical workers in the Italian army.  The red cross, in the beginning, was mostly an organization supporting the military.  Even in my time, red crosses were displayed on army field hospitals, on army ambulances.  It was in fighting the communist, we found that their most effective targets were the red crosses on hospitals and ambulances.  Medical officers, such as myself, other medical officers and workers, learned early to turn our collars showing our rank and the medical emblem (serpent on staff) inside our shirt because snipers loved to kill doctors and those treating the wounded.

Doctors and nurses have a remarkable sense of the invisible. Nurses, male and female, are more sensitive to the invisible then doctors, male and female. Female workers are always more sensitive to other females. 80% of all healthcare is psychological.  The successful practitioner realizes early, that the invisible fears experienced by all of us and our attempt at trying to control these fears, must be considered in treatment. 

The Bible is not a very sensitive book, sensitivity is not particularly evident in the laws of God.  We live in a generation now of being sensitive to everything, every word we say, every action we take.  My life has been too busy to spend very much time with sensitivity towards other people or worrying about their sensitivity to me.  I believe my first experience with social sensitivity, was in the state of Alabama, I stopped by to see a professional friend in his office. I believe he wanted to impress me by sharing with me not only his beautiful offices but his remarkable home, up on a mountain with a magnificent view.  He called his wife and told her he was bringing a college friend home to lunch.  It was evident, from the start, even though we went through the motions, that she resented him bringing someone home unexpectedly.  She was very cold towards both of us.  Now I have eaten enough tomato soup to recognize Campbell’s tomato soup.  She had opened a can of soup which she served to the two of us in the magnificent dining room with some crackers. Of course, I was magnanimous, but I was sensitive to the fact that she was mad and he was embarrassed. Even though we ate the soup by a window with a magnificent view, and I relished in his success.

In direct contrast, another friend in a small southern town, a man of discipline and integrity, was called by a farm family, long time patients, that a visitor had fallen and cut her leg. He told him to bring her to his office (a typical small town office which was closed down at night with no employees), he stitched the cut, but could not have imagined that the girl would accuse him of making a sexual advance.  It was an ugly charge, an ugly trial (a man of well known wealth), the jury always believes the female, he lost his license, he and his family left town, the doctor-less town bewildered by a young female using the invisible. Because of this litigious society in which a male is afraid to be in the same room with a women (doctor, minister, teacher) where anyone can make a charge and many will believe it.

Many years ago, I was engaged in a legal action and I know the exact cocktail party where an opposing couple made a charge against me. As difficult as it is to believe, I was accused with being caught with a women of ill repute in the political headquarters of NC (Sir Walter Hotel Raleigh NC).  I know what it is like to hear people whispering when I walk into a public place.  Since one newspaper editor, knowing my sight condition, realized the improbability of such activity, wrote an entire editorial, “How do these vicious rumors get started”. But, even though everything is totally invisible to some , they want to believe the worst. I was stunned when one of my relatives called and told me that another relative, who should have known better, had called her about the rumor.  It is best, as the great preacher and founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, said, “if I do not know something to be true, if I do not know if it will do some good, I ignore all rumors and put them out of my mind”.

The invisible, sensitivity, must be shown by teachers toward children. All are very different, they come into a classroom carrying different baggage. Hitler put 275,000 disabled German citizens to death because he felt they were of no use to the state, that they were a burden, and that their “life value” was not great enough. In 1936, Hitler called euthanasia of the disabled, a charitable organization.

In 50 years, euthanasia will be a common place in this country.  As was seen with Terry Chavo, as has already been voted in the states of Oregon and Washington, as is the case with Dr. Tiller in Kansas, as is the case of euthanasia in Holland and the Scandinavian countries, money is more important than life, political correctness more important than principles.

In most killings, from autopsies or other analysis, most things are visible. Even the famous rat poison murders are detected. 95% of rat poison is just innocent cornmeal but the chemist can find the arsenic. In anatomy, we discovered that the only safe murder was with a “hat pin”. Run a hat pin through the pupil of the eye penetrating the ocular bone, causing a brain hemorrhage, and you have an immediate stroke. Unless the Coroner is very perceptive about the cornea of the eye, he will never see where the hat pin penetrated. Is this any worse than the penetration of the expectant mothers womb to destroy the unborn? It is reassuring to know that, if not on earth, the invisible will be made visible eventually.