Living: the ultimate team sport

We’re all different versions of each other

Posted on June 13, 2016 Updated on June 13, 2016

Black, brown, or white.

Gay, straight or trans.

Rich, middle class or poor.

Religious, agnostic, or atheist.

Young or old…

We’re all the same, but different.

In the book  A Different Perspective on Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias: Practical Tools with Spiritual Insights, author Megan Carnarius relayed a conversation she had with one of the employees she supervised in a long-term care facility who was moving out of state. Ms. Carnarius asked this young caregiver what she had learned from her job of four years. This is what she said,

Older people are no different from any of us. People with dementia are no different from us. They all, we all, have the same feelings and needs.

They want to laugh and be silly, they want to be listened to and be taken seriously, they want to be reassured and loved, they want to love and be helpful, make a contribution, just like everyone else.

I learned that here.

It is my hope that all of us learn that same lesson so that whomever is in our lives, so that all those with whom we come in contact, we’ll be able to recognize ourselves in them and perhaps treat them with the respect for which all of us yearn.