Thursday, May 04, 2006
Defining Compassion
There are few things I can claim extreme expertise on in this world, but one of them is being fat. As I revealed a while back, it's a serious issue in my life. I was never more than somewhere between and third and a half of this guy but that's still pretty doggone large.
So what's that got to do with compassion? Well, consider my double-sized friend linked above.
Consider this sad case. Now I watched this show. This guy was in the hospital for care for his obesity and they busted him with a good 200 pounds of nasty groceries hidden around his room that people were bringing to him! He ended up dead.
I am very much a libertarian when it comes to weight. When I was at my biggest I really, really hated people telling me about "my problem." I knew I was huge, ate to maintain that size - it was my decision. I willingly suffered the insurance and other costs associated with being that big. When the costs became too high, in my case becasue my knees hurt so bad ambulation was becoming an issue, I dealt with it. If an individual is willing to pay the price for their obesity then I am all for them, I was and still am - God forbid I should ever get that big again. By the way, all the medical care I have received related to my weight loss, I have paid cash for - thank you Lord!
I guess my real point is this - if this guy is clueless how he got this big, surgery won't help. All he'll do is rip his guts up eating way too much after the surgery. To me this is particularly true given this little goody from the story
If the man's life is not in imminent danger, it seems to me that compassion would dictate helping him come to terms with his genuine problems, not granting charity for surgery that merely masks them. Otherwise, he could wind up dead from surgical or post-surgical complications, or he could find himself in this same hole some years down the road.
This is true in so many areas of life - we exercise what we think is compassion, but our efforts are mostly designed to make ourselves feel better, they do not really help the person we claim to be helping. We do something because we think compassion dictates it, when nothing may be exactly what is needed, and most truly compassionate.
I really feel sorry for this guy. I'm pretty sure I understand what he is dealing with better than most people, and maybe even better than he does. I feel so sorry for him that I may just let him stew. When it gets bad enough, with God's help, he'll figure a way.
Related Tags: obesity, compassion, help
So what's that got to do with compassion? Well, consider my double-sized friend linked above.
Uribe made an impassioned plea for help earlier this year on Mexican television, saying he weighed a more normal 130 kg until aged 22 and did not know what happened to him.On first review, the compassionate thing to do would appear to be to respond to his plea, give him money and assistance so that he can have bariatric surgery and drop the weight. But when I read that phrase "did not know what happened to him" I'm not so sure that really is the compassionate thing to do. I know exactly what happened to him - dinner happened to him. Lots and lots of dinner, repeatedly over the course of years. Been there, done that - and with God's infinite grace, I have overcome it.
Consider this sad case. Now I watched this show. This guy was in the hospital for care for his obesity and they busted him with a good 200 pounds of nasty groceries hidden around his room that people were bringing to him! He ended up dead.
I am very much a libertarian when it comes to weight. When I was at my biggest I really, really hated people telling me about "my problem." I knew I was huge, ate to maintain that size - it was my decision. I willingly suffered the insurance and other costs associated with being that big. When the costs became too high, in my case becasue my knees hurt so bad ambulation was becoming an issue, I dealt with it. If an individual is willing to pay the price for their obesity then I am all for them, I was and still am - God forbid I should ever get that big again. By the way, all the medical care I have received related to my weight loss, I have paid cash for - thank you Lord!
I guess my real point is this - if this guy is clueless how he got this big, surgery won't help. All he'll do is rip his guts up eating way too much after the surgery. To me this is particularly true given this little goody from the story
Uribe's case puzzles doctors since his cholesterol and blood-sugar levels are normal, despite his extreme obesity.All of that was true for me too, by the way, it's not that mysterious, some people can handle obesity better than others, there is no equation "obesity=death" here. Another reason for my libertarian views on the issue.
"His heart works very well. He has some respiratory difficulty because of his obesity, but in strict terms, he's well," said Marco Anibal Rodriguez Vargas, the director of hospitals in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.
If the man's life is not in imminent danger, it seems to me that compassion would dictate helping him come to terms with his genuine problems, not granting charity for surgery that merely masks them. Otherwise, he could wind up dead from surgical or post-surgical complications, or he could find himself in this same hole some years down the road.
This is true in so many areas of life - we exercise what we think is compassion, but our efforts are mostly designed to make ourselves feel better, they do not really help the person we claim to be helping. We do something because we think compassion dictates it, when nothing may be exactly what is needed, and most truly compassionate.
I really feel sorry for this guy. I'm pretty sure I understand what he is dealing with better than most people, and maybe even better than he does. I feel so sorry for him that I may just let him stew. When it gets bad enough, with God's help, he'll figure a way.
Related Tags: obesity, compassion, help
