Monthly Musings
On this page you will find an article each month submitted by one of the SCIM Team. Normally it will be topical and reflect the area of chaplaincy undertaken by the contributor.
There is Dignity in Work!
We often here the comment ‘he or she doesn’t want to work’ I am of the opinion that this is a myth as there is not one person that I have spoken to who doesn’t want to work and give themselves a better life, especially those who have a disability of some description.
As I walk and wander round Aberdeen Airport where I am the chaplain one of the questions that I am often asked, where is the baggage carousel? I either direct the person to it or more often than not take them there especially if they are older or disabled.
Which reminds me of the story I heard about a group of young men with learning difficulties who attended a day centre in Edinburgh?
One time a new teacher came into the centre and wanted to find out from them what they would like to be. A number of them said they would like to be astronauts, a wee bit difficult she thought and then decided to take them out to the airport where they would see the planes taking off and landing. As they were going through the airport they passed a baggage carousel and one of them who we will call John became fascinated with it. The teacher came back and took him away but he still returned and watched this thing doing its business. Their time was up and they returned to the hostel making no comment on how they felt, how they enjoyed or otherwise their day out.
The teacher was a wee bit upset, said nothing and went back to her home. Later that evening she received a phone call from the warden of the hostel telling her how much the lads enjoyed themselves and wondering if they could go back next week.
They went back the next week and succeeding weeks and always the same thing happened, John stopped at the baggage carousel until one of the workers said to him, ‘ we’ve noticed that you enjoy watching the carousel would you like to see the other side. John was over the moon, they then asked him if he would like to help them take some of the luggage off the belt as plane had just landed, John grasped the opportunity to help the workers. This went on for another few weeks and then a job became vacant. The two workers who had befriended John went to their boss and told him about the young man who had learning difficulties but was very capable of doing the work, John got the job, and that in itself would be a good result, but in fact there was an even better one, the supervisor’s post became vacant and there
was only one person for the job according to the workers, and that was John.
Work is important for people in many ways more especially if some have a disability. The people at the airport saw above John’s disability and gave him the opportunity to prove himself and so in a world where the materialistic is god, balancing the books are of prime importance it is only right that we should care for those who are most vulnerable in our society especially if they want to work and give them a chance to contribute to our communities.
Lewis Rose
Previous Musings - Click on the date to read the article
December 2007 by Elisabeth Spence
January 2008 by Cate Adams
February 2008 by Douglas Wright
March 2008 by Lewis Rose