WWDMD #3
ByFrom the Logans:
So, yesterday morning I found Don Jose. I didn’t recognize his crumpled body slumped in the street. His trademark sombrero was missing from his head. He looked drawn in and his hands were cold to the touch. He had bodily fluids on his shirt and pants. He wouldn’t move.What should I do? I prayed again to God, out loud, surrounded by a group of other drunk Mayans…who I’m sure, were wondering what a Gringo was doing hanging around the bars downtown and showing interest in this sleeping old man. This didn’t feel safe, but I knew I should do something. But Don Jose would not awaken and I looked as confused as I felt.As I turned to walk away God gentled whispered… “What if he were you’re Dad?” “But God, he is not my Dad?” NoDon Jose? Lifted from The Journey
answer. I guess that wasn’t the question. Again… “What if he were your Dad?”
So I picked up his crumpled body and threw him over my shoulder at the protestations of the crowd of drunks. Iwaived down a Tuk-Tuk and brought him to our home. Carried him into our house. I put him in our guest room bed. Heather looked at me as if to say, “Honey, I love you…but now what?” I answered without her asking, “I don’t know what to do next, but I’m acting as if he were my Dad.”5 hours later, after cleaning him up, and keeping him calm, feeding him some eggs and forcing water down him…Itook him to his own home. This time he could walk with his arm around my shoulders. He looked better and alive. And my home only needed to be cleaned from all the fluids that kept spurting from him. My kids acted with love. My wife was a wonderful care-mate with me.As I was walking him home we passed many, many people. The sight of a big gringo walking a little, old, drunkMayan man home drew a mixture of humorous smiles and looks of shock. This job… if done at all, would be done by a family member. A wife, or daughter. But when I brought him to his home, I was greeted by his wife, his sister…daughters, and children with hugs and kisses. So, at least for them…it felt like the right thing to do.Will he be at work today? Will he now stop drinking because he knows his life isn’t hidden from me? I don’t know. But we are praying and he knows that I know now. He knows that I care.
I haven’t been able to deduce from the blog who Don Jose is, so perhaps he is a long-time friend of the family. I have to say this is one case where I would likely take a ‘pass’ on helping the drunk, presumably vomiting man from the street to my home. For one, we already have people in this house who can’t control their bodily functions, two, I don’t know what some drunk is likely to do in my home and/or to my family. The old nuns used to teach (before they gave up their habits and faith for feminism), that the first rule of charity was ‘Do no harm’. I don’t need the Wife or daughter in danger so I can help a guy who’s drinking himself into acoma.
I would be inclined to help a starving child or person in need of emergency medical care, even in my home if that was appropriate. If I were a single guy roaming the country doing good deeds, that would be different. In fact, on some days that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. But I think I would draw the line here. Am I just a scaredy cat? WWYD?
P.S. What is it with indigenous people and their drinking? Around the world this seems to be a predictable theme.
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16 Comments
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
(1 Tim 5:8 Certainly if anyone does not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith.)
I agree with you Mark, you don't bring danger to your own family. If you give a man like that money he will only use it to get drunk again, so I believe praying for him is the best you can do.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
The Logan family acted with perfect charity and compassion, treating a fellow human being as family. I wouldn't have done it, not because of the "danger" but because of the precedent set, and more honestly, because my christian charity and compassion are not at the Logan's level.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 am
I agree with what Don did in the story and commend him for it. You can see from the post that he is a “Big Gringo” capable of picking up the little drunk man and throwing him over his shoulder, therefore I do not think there was any threat posed to him or his family. I think Don did an honorable thing most people would not and are not obligated to. If he had walked by and just prayed for him, that’s great and nobody would have ever questioned that, but he went a step further and showed compassion on him. This is much more like the story of the Good Samaritan than of what is referenced in 1 Tim 5:8. And where in the post does it say that he gave him money? He took care of a helpless man who he obviously knew well enough to recognize in a drunken stupor and to tell a tuk tuk driver where he lived. Also, no indigenous wife and daughters are going to greet a gringo with hugs and kisses (no matter who you help) unless they know you really well.
Don wasn’t just helping some random person and if any of us ran into one of our friends in the same state I would hope that we would help them too.
Mike, I think you are completely off base here. I wouldn’t expect you to do what Don did, but to try and use scripture against him as if to criticize him for it…I have to ask where you get the nerve?
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I have mixed emotions.
My first reaction would to ignore the person. I have always felt that those who abuse themselves from drugs or alcohol are not worthy of aid. It woild be different if someone or something had visited some afliction on him, but this he had done to himself.
On the other hand, It hurts me to see misery endured by man or animal. I guess it would depend on what side of the bed I woke up on.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:35 pm
In the post prior to the one you copied from their web page, you will find out who Don Jose is and why it mattered. To show compassion only when it is convenient, is not true compassion.
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I think you are naive to think there was no possible danger to his family, I also think he did a wonderful thing for the man, but if something would have happened to somebody in his family we would be having a different conversation about it, the other thing is, will he continue to do this for him week after week. At some point people have to take responsibility for there own life, It's sounds to me that his own family wasn't even out looking for him.
Many years ago I would give a stranger a ride if they needed one, today it's just a dangerous thing to do.
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:30 pm
This blog is so diverse, on Feb. 20th we were talking about shooting someone dead who tries to rob you, and today we get criticized for commenting on what is best for the safety of our family.
What if the robber was just trying to feed his family and now he is dead, that is pretty sad too, the fact is, there is alot of suffering in Guatemala and alot of danger, I will choose to protect my family every time.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Thanks Suzanne for telling us to read the rest of the Blog on who Don Jose was, that makes all the difference in the world, in fact The Logans were doing what I was talking about, taking care of someone that they considered family.
My Prayers are with the Logans and Don Jose, as they were even before I knew the whole story.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:36 am
I had the pleasure of meeting the Logans this summer and we still email one another today. Like Suzanne said, reading the rest of their blog will show you that Don Jose was like family. He wasn't some "drunk off of the streets." I pray for their dear family and the mission that they have in Guatemala.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:25 am
Suzanne, thanks for bringing this to my attention, the previous post does put this in context. However, I'll have to disagree with your assertion that a virtuous act is only virtuous if it is inconvenient. That which is inherently good is not made evil (or even less good) simply because it is not burdensome.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
As a rule of thumb I don't pay attention to any gods who can't distinguish 'your' from 'you're'.
In reality I'm from a city where someone is passed out in their own fluids within a block or two of wherever you might be standing. People are sleeping in doorways, under overpasses, on the sidewalk. I can't say that I'm inured to the scenery but I can't say I feel particularly guilty about not having found a way to help one and all.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Huh?
I think you are reading too much into Suzanne's comment. Also, you lost me with all of the double negatives. Please clarify.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:37 pm
But, Brendan, no one is asking you (or anyone else) to "help one and all." This story is about a guy helping a friend who has fallen off the sobriety wagon. Wouldn't you do that for your friend? The fact that Don Marco didn't read the previous post before posting this one is where the confusion might be. He wasn't just some guy off of the street. He was a friend.
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Sonia, Suzanne wrote, "To show compassion only when it is convenient, is not true compassion." I reject the idea that an act which is compassionate is so only because it is inconvenient. In Thomistic thought the act could have greater merit (merit defined as a reward for work done), if there is a greater degree of sacrifice (that being relative, e.g., the widow who gives her last coin), but a rich man who gives the same amount is still engaging in a virtuous act, perhaps less meritorious.
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I try to keep up with all of the blogs on my Blogroll, but as you can see to the right the list is extensive and I admit to not being able to keep all the characters referred to in each blog 'straight'. The Logans don't have a search function enabled and so I wasn't able to search the blog for a previous mention of 'Jose'. If I found my friend passed out in the street I would take him home as well.
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I think if I knew him I would try to see if he got home and wasnt left in the street. Certain holidays it is popular to become drunk out of your mind like Easter Sunday when you see many passed out drunks along the road side in Guatemala. Would I bring him to my home no too dangerous but I would try to get him to his home and his family.