Compromised

I am astounded by the degree to which humans can be debilitated and still function – or appear to function.

At age 62, my father was found to have severe cardiovascular disease with 90% blockage in one coronary artery and 70% blockage in three others. He eventually had a quadruple bypass operation and lived another 25 fruitful years – with an artificial hip, arthritis, and BPH, besides.  But, through it all, he only ever missed a couple of Sundays teaching Bible Study and never forfeited his “country farm” garden until the very last.

Rosa came highly recommended to the Chairman’s lab as a Senior Technical Associate.  She had been the manager of a sizeable federal contract research program at a private lab just across town.  [The contract was expiring and the head of the program – who, in fact, had highly recommended her – was retiring.]  Rosa turned out to be “a real piece of work”.  She dressed “to the nines” – which was substantial overkill for a lab-rat, had just married one of the top graduating medical students [her second marriage], and was a “drama queen”, the likes of which I had never encountered before.  She claimed to have used the divorce settlement money from her original marriage plus some of her retirement money to outfit a personal contracting lab in a warehouse somewhere downtown. She was occasionally late or distracted by major daily crises involving a plethora of disparate friends, associates and family members.  She showed up faithfully for regular lab meetings but was MIA at odd times throughout the day.  And she produced a variable volume of data which could not be corroborated by other lab staff.  After nine weeks, Rosa had to be let go. Things just weren’t adding up.  As it turned out, Rosa was discovered to have a drug addiction with a pathological Prima Donna complex masquerading as a near-functional human being.

“Roughly 19% of adults experience a diagnosable mental health issue, federal data shows, and countless more go through a tough time without talking about it.”   [Mandy Oaklander, Time, March 16, 2015, p. 24]

It’s the number of under-the-radar, non-diagnosable compromised individuals that gives one harrowing pause … a number that is not only “countless”, but undoubtedly huge.

An underdeveloped or damaged prefrontal cortex leaves one stuck in adolescence, with truncated executive brain function.   “Heavy drinkers also experience the frontal lobe system double whammy: They may lose certain capabilities, such as impulse control or motor coordination or the ability to drive safely, but they aren’t aware that they’ve lost them — or simply don’t care — so they forge ahead anyway.”  The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload [Daniel J. Levitin, Penguin Group, 2014.]

The Social Security Administration now recognizes over 200 “Compassionate Allowance” conditions and, as of 2013, more than 14 million persons, nationwide, were receiving disability payments.  [NOTE: While these individuals are not deemed “abled” for all profitable purposes, many are, nonetheless, functional to a point of moderately manageable survival and do not require supportive care. Thus, they can appear, for all practical purposes, as functionally “normal”.]

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/490/trends-with-benefits]

On the “flip side”, we encounter more than a handful of Unlikely Champions – i.e., individuals who are born with or acquire life-altering handicaps or functional deficits by which they are “compromised” in many different ways, yet, through sheer fortitude of the human spirit, they are able to rise to the top of their chosen field.  [viz., Wilma Rudolph, Christy Brown (“My Left Foot”), Stephen Hawking (“A Brief History of Time”, etc.]

Thus, a “Compromised” circumstance is sometimes a figment of the beholder – or the beholden.

Truth be told, we’re all “Compromised” in some way(s).  We’re not tall enough, strong enough, attractive enough, skilled enough, “polished” enough, smart enough, coordinated enough, confident enough, talented enough, “lucky” enough, etc., to make it through life without substantial extra effort and more than a little sacrifice.  We also tend to have, and often cultivate, extended “dependencies”.  Add to this: warped values, unsound judgment, and lack of discipline – plus prejudice and the customary vices – and one has to wonder, seriously, how much legitimate hope there is for any real progress in the universe!

LOS ANGELES (CNN, October 22, 2013) – [A] Video of Glenn Taylor [a “leave no footprint” Boy Scout leader] shoving the huge rock off a slender pedestal boulder in Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park, where it rested for millions of years, went viral online and prompted media scrutiny  …  [Taylor had] filed a personal injury lawsuit just a few weeks earlier, claiming he suffers from “serious, permanent and debilitating injuries.”  http://www.wptv.com/news/national/glenn-taylor-man-who-toppled-rock-formation-at-goblin-valley-state-park-filed-claim-for-injuries

… perhaps a “serious, permanent and debilitating mental condition … “

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The Pareto Principle holds that 80% of real progress comes from 20% of those involved.  That 20% may be our only hope!  They are the “Change Agents” … the leaders … the doers … the “keepers of the flame”.  Yes, they are all “compromised”!  But they’re fighting back, fighting through their challenges and compromised circumstances, and fighting FOR a better life … a better world … a better tomorrow.

Quartermaster