A favorite movie of mine is the “Wizard of Oz”, which I have seen more times than I can count. Dorothy of Kansas finds herself in a strange world, with a lot of strange looking creatures and folks. It is at its roots, a story of travel, much like the Biblical character Abraham, who is directed by God to leave his home, which he knows quite well, to a land that he knew very little about.
Life is a journey, and sometimes in that journey, a person finds him/herself in a strange land called “Hospital”. It is a place with strange looking people walking around, with strange looking instruments in hand. They speak a language that is not easily understood by those from the outside. It has rooms which contains some very strange looking equipment that either hooks up to or wraps around a person being tested or treated.
It is within this environment that the patient needs something to help them cope with the situation at hand, and it is times like this that a little injection of humor can make the person feel a little more at ease and a little less threatened.
The most basic form of humor is the “smile”. This is “body language” speaking its most basic message – “welcome to my world”. Receiving a smile in a forbidden place in the world is a most rewarding experience. In fact it is well known that a smile can be infectious, causing others to be caught up in its transforming presence. Before you know it, the whole room is full of this infectious gift.
Yes, the treatment process will go on as usual, but the ingredient of smile has taken away some of the rough edges of the procedure, which will produce some lingering thoughts of “this wasn’t so bad after all.”
~ "Charlie Chaplain" aka Chaplain Robert Ford, Director of Pastoral Care
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