At a time when the world is scared, depressed and in a funk, along came sports. When every board game in the closet has been played a dozen times and we've all read every lame thriller novel on our Kindles, along came sports. Coming together and pulling for someone other than vaccine manufacturers helps somehow, doesn't it? My son had grown maybe truly depressed for the first time in his 29 years. Can't see his nana, his friends at church, his friends from his old occupational and physical therapy group. One thing this has taught me is that people with developmental issues and other physical difficulties REALLY are hurt by isolation more than the rest of us. But the Nuggets games have lifted him up, and in turn me and my wife as well. We sit and do Stiffs posts together and he belly laughs at the gifs. MJOP is his favorite "creator" on the site. He says MJOP is "probably a computer genius, dad. He might work at NASA." And I said, "yeah, maybe he does." It's one of the cool things here. Nobody is better than anyone else. Everyone brings something different so, yeah, there are many Stiffs who create laughs and sports knowledge better than I do, but ultimately we all get to connect on a human level in this difficult time together.
It's weird. I used to think that the internet decreased human connections for my patients. And in some cases, maybe it does. But at a time when a virus forced sequestration upon us, the technological "isolator" became the "facilitator." Many of my patients have joined on line quilting clubs, poker playing clubs, gaming groups, etc. And while I would have probably wondered about whether they get out enough in the past, I now really get into hearing those stories. It's not that I didn't listen before. It's that I didn't actively listen. It's remarkable what it takes for us to see things differently, isn't it? At the very beginning of COVID some at the hospital offered some off time to help patients in the hospital use ipads to connect to their relatives. The isolation of the patients from their families was tragic. The nurses were so overworked that they couldn't just sit for hours and help people talk to their families although many of them did so, anyway. Sometimes the patients needed help because they were older, sicker patients who struggled with new technology. Other times they weren't physically able to use it for a multitude of other reasons. And I remember thinking, "Man, for some folks at certain times of their life this whole internet connecting to others thing is an amazing gift!" And now I'd say the same thing for my family during this pandemic. I'm not afraid to say it has been very difficult for us with our patients and our son's issues. Just as it has been for everyone else on this site. And, believe me, I know that my patients who are struggling to make rent, out of work, worried about their kids' studies and such have it MUCH harder than we do. Even so, this site has made a positive difference for us in a way that is so much more than being a Nuggets fan. And it all starts with that simple connection that we always refer to as unimportant, sports.
