Continuing the story

So, I finished the rest of the play we read. I won’t lie, I cried a little. Especially when Barry’s father came and was such an idiot. We watched that part of the movie in my social work class, and it was portrayed even worse then. It is just really hard to imagine someone being so completely insensitive. On one hand, I can understand that the dad probably has issues of his own and there are probably reasons that he acts the way he does, but I just don’t want to give him any excuses for what he did. Maybe I’m being insensitive in thinking that way. Either way, that really affected me.

Another thing that was pretty sad is that Jack had to leave, and then their reaction to that. I completely understand why he had to leave. It was getting to be way too much for him, and he wasn’t able to separate himself from his work. That’s really hard for a person to handle. I just think it is so sad that it has to be that way. But that’s life, I guess. It’s a tough thing to grapple with though. It makes you wonder what will happen when Jack leaves, and the next person takes his place. Will the four men develop the same type of relationship with the new social worker as they had with Jack? Then the cycle would continue whenever that social worker got overwhelmed and someone new had to come in. Eventually I feel like they would just decide not to get close to people because it seems as if they all leave. Of course, maybe because of their disabilities, they wouldn’t think like that. I know that is what happens to kids and things quite a bit though.

I’m really curious to see how the field trip on Monday is going to go. I want to know what we’ll be doing there, and what kind of things we’ll see. Interacting with people who have mental disabilities is hard for me. Not because I’m necessarily scared or are unsure of what to do, although that does happen sometimes. But it’s mostly because I get sad. I feel bad that they have to live with that, and then I feel bad that I feel bad for them. Like I’m diminishing their life just because I feel bad for them. So, I don’t know. It’s something I think about.