the courage to keep going on...

Lately a few bad things happened at work.
Mike is still there, he had been dismissed but he got back because his DA insisted that we gave him one more chance...
The very same evening he was caught with alcohol. No comment.


Also last week one of our residents skipped his program and got in trouble. He has no excuse, he did something useless, shameful and on his own will. I felt really hurt.
I feel really sorry for him, because it was an obvious lack of respect for himself, and for his family
This guy came a long way in 6 months, he was getting there slowly.
We had our weekly meeting today and we were wondering what went wrong: we probably were not strict enough, but I think we did all we could, we work with giving them some sense of responsibility, with a lot of control at the beginning and progressively more responsibility for the person..
Some other co-worker says they saw a few cases where residents regress a little at the end of their program, sort of fear to be left by themselves, way to stay longer under control, because in that case they delay the graduation a few months..
Could be also bad influences, negative people who reduced his self esteem, his will to become someone different, or a fear to become a complete stranger to the only life he knows..

I'm not making excuses, but I need to put sense in that.

So tonight I admire the sisters who I work with. They've seen worse. They keep going with the program. They won't give up because one man disappointed them. Even if they could help only one, only one going back on track, becoming a better spouse and father, then they consider themselves successful. And they're right.
One success is worth all the work, because we're talking here about human being, with infinite dignity. It's so important to me that it makes me sad for that guy who did something so shameful today... I don't think myself superior. But I know I have that dignity, and my duty is to honor that image of God in me, and in all the persons I meet.


Today I've been thinking a lot about that poem, it's the first real poem I learned I english class:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!