Upstairs Issues (i.e. Religion)

 A Priest Talking to a Sick Child.

That kid's pillow looks way too good for a hospital pillow.

From Corbis, by L. Kate Deal.

While in the hospital, I was always fascinated by a particular paradox: overtly religious people who were suicidal. Patient Ne and Patient D were both examples of this. My first roommate, Patient D, was one of these lost lambs. She would even read the Bible in bed. There are plenty of healthy Christians out there who've probably never actually read the Bible, and yet here was a woman who had tried to end her life and was reading the Bible at bedtime. Though I suppose it's typical for patients to take solace in the Word of the Almighty God. I hope it gave her comfort.

The reconciliation of the religion/suicide thing is an issue, though. Hamlet had a line about that in Act I, scene ii. Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd / His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! Hamlet's basically saying that he'd kill himself if it weren't against Christian doctrine. (And don't you English professors tell me that Hamlet wasn't suicidal. That line combined with the "To be or not to be" speech is solid proof.)

Suicide is just Against The Rules, plain and simple, according to the Judeo-Christian perspective. I almost want to call hypocrite on these people. Though maybe it's more an issue of falling short of the mark.

Of course, I'm a born-and-raised atheist (yes, seriously), so I wouldn't defend my knowledge of Christian doctrine in court or anything. After all, when Patient R used the phrase "Only the guy upstairs knows" in a group therapy session, my first thought was "What? The billing department?"

I can be a little doctrinally challenged at times.

Other than people hoping that religion will heal their wounds, the most prevalent presence of religion in the ward was in the form of religious visitors. Priests, Imams, Rabbis -- holy personages of any religion are welcome. I saw both a pastor and an imam during my week at the hospital. (The imam was holding hands with Patient B as he did his slow laps around the nurses' station. He was one of a handful of lap-walkers.) AND -- get this, men of the cloth aren't limited just to standard visiting hours (11am-2pm and 6pm-8pm). They can visit patients on the ward at any time.

They call it the Pastor Pass.

Original found at SmartDraw.com