In future blogs I want to reflect on Baptistcare’s values. These are the behaviours that we expect to see as we go about our mission and strive to reach our vision: To transform and enrich lives.
I will never forget the time I went into a real estate agency to assist an Aboriginal woman in her search for secure housing. The woman’s dress was dirty and she had sores on her face, but she had a basic right to housing. I had listened to her stories of repeated rejection and mistrust and offered to go with her, thinking (rather self-righteously) that my advocacy would help to overcome some of the barriers of race. I was a middle class Caucasian male who previously had no problems with negotiation, but as I stood alongside this woman to advocate on her behalf it was as if my skin colour had suddenly changed and my dignity was crushed by the words and attitudes of the person at reception.
In contemplating how to treat another person a question I like to ask myself is: “How would I expect this person to treat me?”. I would like to be treated with dignity, and no matter who I am or what I have done, or what my relationship with the person is, I would like to think that my basic humanity is respected. The least I can do is to return that respect.
One of the great poets of our time, Bob Dylan expressed the view of so many when he said:
So many roads, so much at stake;
So many dead ends and I’m at the edge of the lake;
Sometimes I wonder what it’s gonna take to find dignity.
What are some ways that you would express dignity in your relationships?
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