7.
Over
the years, Jack would Live in Chippewa Falls for a time, have many adventures with many friends, be adopted by a black German Shepherd named Shoba, be honorably discharged from the Marines, marry a
wonderful woman, have two amazing kids, become a paramedic and end up living in
Rochester, Minnesota.
His wife was a nurse at Mayo, and he was working for an
ambulance service in Decorah, Iowa, seventy miles away. After nearly a decade
in EMS, Jack was feeling burned out. He
was tired of dealing with people who were sick and injured. Tired of treating
those who weren’t really that sick. Tired of battling Death for the life of
people from 101 years old down to three months old. Tired of dealing with a
manager who seemed more concerned with keeping the hospital administration happy
than with how he treated his medics, or how the medics were coping with things
they saw day in and day out. He was haunted by dreams of children that had died
in his arms, kids he could not save, no matter how hard he tried.
Without
realizing it, he was developing Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He became short
tempered and irritable. Finally, at the request of his wife, he went to see a
doctor. She diagnosed him as probably
having PTSD, and after a few worksheets of questions, was positive beyond a
doubt. Jack went to see a counselor, not
really thinking that it would help much. But to his surprise, it did. His outlook on things changed. Although his
job was challenging, Jack felt like he was good at what he did and he loved and
respected the medics he worked with like he felt about the Marines he served
with. But things with the manager were
getting worse. After some serious
deliberation with his wife, and not caring much for the hostile work environment
that was developing, Jack retired from being a medic and decided to become an
artist. He had started several artistic
hobbies while a medic to help him escape from the stresses of the job. He
worked with stained glass, became a knife maker, had taught himself to make
traditional archery equipment, and had just recently started working with warm
and hot glass.
Life
was moving along for Jack and his family. But Jack didn’t feel like he mattered
much anymore. After all, as a Marine he
had been a defender of his country. As a
medic he had helped save lives. As an artist… well… he made neat things, but
what difference would that make? Fortunately for Jack, he had married an
amazing woman who had the ability to not only get to the root of things, but
was incredibly supportive of all of his foibles. As they talked, they discussed God calling
people to certain things. Jack didn’t
put much stock in that. He had never
felt “called” to anything. But he did feel like he was meant to serve others.
He served as a Marine. He served as a medic. But now, how could he serve?
He
really wanted to be a philanthropist, and be able to make things happen to
improve the lives of others. Unfortunately, he did not have the millions of
dollars needed to be a philanthropist.
But his wife, over dinner one night, asked him why he couldn’t donate
his skills instead of money. After all,
his father had taught him to work with his hands as he grew up, and he was sort
of a jack of all trades, and could do some construction and other things. Perhaps, they reasoned together, he could
volunteer with some organization that built houses or drilled water wells or
something. In thinking things over, Jack
considered the situation on the Pine Ridge reservation. It was the most impoverished county in the
entire country, with 90% unemployment, high rates of alcoholism, diabetes,
suicides. The lifespan for the average male was 47. Women did a little better with an age of
54. Jack thought that perhaps he could
start an organization that would go to the reservation and fix up houses, put
in windows, patch up roofs. Just improve the living conditions a little. His wife came up with the excellent idea of
looking online to see if such a group already existed.
After
some research, Jack found a group doing the exact things he had
envisioned. It was called Re-Member, and
took volunteers each week out to help fix up houses on the “Rez” as they called
it. The other part of their program was an immersion into Lakota culture,
including tours of the Rez, and Lakota speakers who came each night to talk
about the history of the people and the problems faced today. So Jack would go
to volunteer for a week on the Rez, and see if he could make some sort of a
difference to anyone.
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