NPR 11-16:Resilience Is a Gift 每个人都有一种与生俱来的力量,帮助我们走出痛苦的阴
时间：2008-06-20 08:18:09
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Treating wounded veterans has taught psychologist Joel Schmidt the resilience of the human spirit.
Welcome to This I Believe -- an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable2 men and women from all walks of life. From NPR news, this is weekend edition. I’m Lian Handsome.
I believe in mystery
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.
On this Veterans Day, today's This I Believe essay was sent in by listener Joe Schmidt. Schmidt is a clinical psychologist at the Outpatient Veterans Affairs Mental Health Clinic in Oakland, California. He’s worked in the VA for 13 years. Here’s the series curator, independent producer Jay Alison.
Joe Schmidt says he finds our series to be a good counterpoint to the negative tenor3 of so much of what he hears in the media. In fact, he hears negative and even heartbreaking stories in his job, pretty much every day. And yet he realizes that from them, he’s derived4 a positive belief. Here’s Joe Schmidt with his essay for This I Believe.
I listen to people for a living. As a psychologist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, I hear about some of the worst experiences humans have to bear. I have sat face-to-face with a Bataan Death March survivor5, an airman shot down over Germany, a marine6 who was at the Chosin Reservoir, veterans from every region of Vietnam, medics and infantry7 soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq. I have spoken with people who have been assaulted and brutalized by their own comrades, and parents who have had to attend their own children’s funerals.
I have gained a surprising belief from hearing about so much agony. I believe in the power of human resilience. I’m continually inspired by the ability of the emotionally wounded to pick themselves up and keep going after enduring the most traumatic circumstances imaginable.
Iraq veterans described to me the constant hell of unpredictable IED attacks and invisible snipers. By the time they get home, many can’t drive on the freeway or be in the same room with old friends. One vet1 described being locked in an emotional cage between numbness8 and rage.
Emerging from this terrible backdrop, many Iraq vets9 have surprised me with their drive to recover and their unpredictable ways of giving back some meaning to their lives. For example, there was a veteran whose most powerful therapeutic10 experience was helping11 his grandmother keep her small business running. This cause gave him a reason to care, someone to emotionally connect with, and ultimately a reason to get up in the morning.
This might sound like naive12 optimism when in fact treatment is often long and hard and not every story has a happy ending. Some days when I go home, my head hurts. I feel sad or worried or angry or ineffective. On these days I have to appeal to my own strategies for self-care, pick myself back up and keep going.
I went to school to learn how to help people get better. Instead, it is often the very people I have spent my career trying to help that remind me how to care for myself. I keep a catalog of them in my head. And I try to use this list as a road map, an inspiration and a reminder13 of what human resilience can achieve.
I make it a point to complement14 the strength and ingenuity15 of the people who sit in my office. But the truth is I don’t think many of them realize the depth of my admiration16. Sitting in the room with these people every day allows me to hope that I might also find the strength to face future problems. This solid sense of hope is a gift and it’s my humble17 desire to share it with the next person who sits with me.
Joe Schmidt with his essay for This I Believe. Schmidt says that it’s part of his job to train interns18 and this essay was a way of explaining why the job is so important to him. You can find information about submitting your own statement of belief at our website, that’s npr. org/thisibelieve. You will also find all the other essays sent in from around the world. For This I Believe, I’m Jay Alison.
Jay Alison is the co-editor with Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick of the book This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. A week from tomorrow, on NPR’s All Things Considered, an essay from Alice Brock of Alice’s restaurant fame. She believes in improvisation19.
Support for This I Believe comes from Prudential Retirement20.
This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe Incorporated and Atlantic Public Media. For more essays in the series, please visit npr.org/thisibelieve.
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