Digging It

Willis Eschenbach has a beautiful post up about the death of a crazy man. A man of the streets who lived life on his own terms. You should read the whole thing. Let me start you off with his opening.

I’ve had the privilege of living in a wide variety of countries and societies. And having not always been entirely sane myself, one way that I judge societies is by how they handle their crazy folks. “Back in the day”, as they say, I lived in a town called Olema, and I was loosely associated with a group of people called the “Diggers“. The Diggers had a communal ranch up the hill from my place, Peter Coyote lived up there. It was a lovely secluded old place, with a constantly changing cast of outrageous characters living and passing through the ranch. Among them was one of the crazy folks, I’ll call him Billy because that wasn’t his name.

And there in lies a tale of my own. I was a Digger at the time and spent a few weeks at the Olema Ranch. I was there for the Chief Rolling Thunder exorcism of one of our group who in hind sight seemed lost to schizophrenia.

How do you give a person who has only limited contact with this universe care without robbing them of their dignity? That is a very difficult one. Very difficult. It will require a considerable adjustment on our part. And some on theirs. Because if we ask nothing we are not treating them as equals.

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And Willis. If you should read this:

I was more involved with the Briceland Branch of the Diggers. Samurai Bob and I were tight. And of course me and Grizzle. I heard a year or two back that Bob is gone. I hope his spirit is where it needs to be. And who could forget Peter Coyote. I also spent a few weeks at Black Bear. Contact me if you like.

My e-mail is on the sidebar at: Power and Control


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3 responses to “Digging It”

  1. Eric Avatar

    Nice post! BTW, did you know Emmett Grogan?

  2. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Not well. I believe I ran into him once. He was legendary though. Even in ’70.

    I knew the Theilin bros. Well. And of course Coyote.

  3. Gringo Avatar
    Gringo

    How do you give a person who has only limited contact with this universe care without robbing them of their dignity? That is a very difficult one. Very difficult.

    During my undergrad days I worked a year as a aide in a psych hospital. Generally speaking, hospital staff did not view a patient’s situation the way the patient did. The accepted point of view at the hospital was that when the patient came around to the hospital staff’s point of view, the patient was on the way to recovery- or at least on the path to discharge.

    As this was a private hospital with stays predicated on insurance payments, which usually were for around six weeks, there was some pressure for a fast turnaround and thus pressure on the patients to quickly change their self-perceptions.

    While hospital staff was usually correct in that point of view, it was still somewhat humiliating for patients to change their self-perceptions.

    As an example of this dichotomy between patient self-viewpoint and hospital staff viewpoint, there was an adolescent girl who was a patient at the hospital. In the words of her psychiatrist: “She sees herself as a rebel, but she is a sick girl.” [The father was physically and verbally abusive, so she had her reasons- both for rebelling and for being “sick.”]

    The psychiatrist died a decade later in his early 50s of a heart attack. Of the other psychiatrists I had dealt with at the hospital, he seemed the one who most wore the mask of psychiatrist. I did not get a handle on him as a person, in contrast to the other psychiatrists and psychologists on staff. I suspect the way he wore the mask of psychiatrist had an effect on his heart attack and early death.

    I had one short encounter with the girl shortly after her discharge. Several years ago I found out she had married someone whom I recognized as an author of books and magazine articles. She has lived longer than the psychiatrist and at least has had it together enough to stay married to an author.

    [Yes, I know not all authors are models of optimal psychological health.]