This Needs a Better Title, but I Can't Think of One - Basically It's About a Guy Named Guy

Guy Knickerbocker - the first time I met this man several years ago, it was all I could do to remain calm and composed as he struggled to articulate himself. It literally took him almost 10 minutes to say something that the average human could have expressed in 2 minutes or less.








You see, Guy Knickerbocker is a surviving stroke victim. The stroke statistics for the United States alone are quite alarming. About every 40 seconds someone in the U.S. has a stroke.  Every 4 minutes someone dies of a stroke. Of the 15 million people worldwide who suffer from a stroke each year, 5 million die and another 5 million are permanently disabled. (Stroke statistics quoted from https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm and http://www.strokecenter.org/patients/about-stroke/stroke-statistics/)

While Guy was blessed to remain in the 66% of stroke victims to remain alive, he joined the 33% of those who are permanently disabled. Visually, Guy would appear to be your typical 80-something year-old man. What hair remains is turning from silver to white, he wears rectangular thin-framed thick-lensed glasses, and will approach you with a smile. But when he attempts to speak, he labors to verbalize what he is trying to communicate. It's honestly quite painful to witness, because he visibly struggles desperately to find the most simple words and is obviously very aware of how frustrating it must be to be forced to sit through a minute or two of stuttering and stammering to finally realize the simplicity what he is trying to say.

[Continuing the story of my first encounter] When I finally realized what he was trying to say, I (very) quickly got to work putting his computer into the system. I myself was very frustrated with standing there for 10 minutes only to realize that the computer problem was a fairly typical one that would have been apparent as soon as I opened up the machine. With not too much further ado, I told him we'd contact him once we had the problem, and went back into the office area, where I vented my frustration to a co-worker. I felt bad, because I genuinely wanted to be helpful and friendly, but I was quite convinced that my fake-it-till-I-make-it approach to appearing patient became increasingly obvious the more impatient I became.

The next time Guy came into the shop with a computer issue, he slowly articulated to my coworker, who remembered my frustration from the previous encounter with him and offered to take care of him this time, that he was having printer issues and wanted someone to come to his house to fix the problem. To my (I now shamefully admit) utter dismay, I was the one scheduled to do the job. So several days later, I found myself dreading every step to his front door to help him with an issue that I had the distinct feeling would take me 10 times longer than normal to fix due to the nature of the situation.

Guy cheerfully greeted me at the door, and ushered me into his study, where he proceeded, again with painstakingly slow delivery, to explain what was going wrong. The issue wound up being something that required some waiting on the computer to "do stuff". I politely attempted some small talk, all the while attempting to will the computer to "GET IT DONE ALREADY!" Guy introduced me to his huge cat, who, as soon as he realized I was another human to bother for attention, hopped into my lap and then up on to the keyboard of the computer, which proceeded to send the computer into somewhat of a mini panic attack (computers do not appreciate many keys being pressed simultaneously, due to abnormally large cats sitting on them, I've come to realize). Guy laughed and I, finally starting to relax, laughed too.

The computer/printer issue resolved, I began to get ready to leave. But Guy, who had in the course of our small-talk shown me one of his newest HAM radio "toys", wanted to show me the rest of his HAM radio setup before I left. So he ushered me up to his attic and demonstrated his setup for me and filled me in on all the details on what the range was and the different people he used to communicate with and still communicates with. I found it all mildly interesting, being a self-described tech nerd. But eventually I did have to make my way towards the door, as I was on the clock and was starting to feel a bit bad that this social time was ultimately going to show up on Guys bill if I let it draw out too long. As I made my way for the door, I happened to catch a glimpse of an award setting on a dresser that mentioned something about "being a crucial contributor to the development of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Not thinking much of it immediately, I drove away, feeling slightly less frustrated about this encounter with Guy than the last.

Suddenly though, as I made my way for the office, I thought about the fact that CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. My curiosity was immediately piqued, and as soon as I got to the office, I proceeded to Google "Guy Knickerbocker CPR development". What I found surprised me immensely - apparently Dr. Guy Knickerbocker was dubbed one of the "Fathers of CPR"! (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/publications/hopkins_medicine_magazine/class_notes/winter-2016/a-father-of-cpr) This frail, faltering-in-speech elderly man was a key developer in a medical procedure that has saved millions of lives!

With this new-found revelation, the box constructed of impatience and frustration I had placed Dr. Knickerbocker in was shattered! I had a whole new appreciation for him! It was crazy how much this shaped my opinion of who he was and how much he was valued by society. This was also a bit of a  dark reminder to myself of how much I place a value on someone based on first impressions and hold them to that and never attempt to get to know them better. Most of the people I meet on a day-to-day basis may not be responsible for saving millions of lives around the world, but that doesn't affect how much they are valued by the God that I follow and believe in.

This whole experience was quite the lesson for me! So often I judge people. I place them in boxes and build prejudices about who they are and never attempt to get to know them and the things in their lives that have formed them into the individuals they are. This is a grave fault on my part! I'm reminded of the passage in Matthew 7:1-2 - "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you" 1 Samuel 16:7 ends with "...man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." While the context of this passage may not fit this scenario exactly, it is still a sobering reminder of a serious fault that I myself struggle with and see happening all around me today.

This is serious, people! People are not all that they initially appear to be, and so often, that affects the things that are said about them and the stigmas that follow them. These things can hurt, guys! They might be struggling with something that you may not know about, and that might be what is causing them to act out in the way they are!

I encourage each of you who have made it this far along in the post to approach just one of those people that you struggle to get along with or just grinds on you every time you see them. I know this is much easier said than done, but ask them seriously about whats going on in their lives! If it's done intentionally, you will learn things about them that will greatly shape your view of them as a person and hopefully allow you to at least to a certain degree empathize with them. Personally, I've found that empathy is one of the most powerful ways of laying aside negative judgments about someone else. Seriously, try it! You won't believe how much your perspective of the individual will be shaped!