Wave Upon Wave

Trey Smith

In an earlier post, The Shifting Current, I wrote, "Change always is inevitable. You either come to understand the new direction the current is flowing or you bog down trying your damnedest to swim against it." While I stand by that sentiment, there is one thing I neglected to mention. It is sometimes hard to get a grip on the new direction of the current when you are being pummeled by wave upon wave.

That's how I feel right now. It seems as if each new day brings an additional problem or issue to the fore. We are being slammed by so many waves that I would be lying if I didn't say that I am feeling very overwhelmed. It's one thing to need to jump over a hurdle or two. It is quite another thing when you feel as if the hurdles are surrounding you and even throwing themselves in your path. I should write a movie: Attack of the Killer Hurdles!

To offer an example, the social worker at Good Samaritan Hospital had urged Della not to dally in applying for Medicaid, state services and Social Security disability. We took this to heart and went to our local Community Services office today. But what was the reaction that we received there? We were told that we were "jumping the gun." It was suggested that we wait a month or two for our situation to become ever more dire.

This response well illustrates one of my continuing frustrations with government bureaucracy. If you try to be proactive -- to deal with issues BEFORE they mushroom into major headaches -- you aren't provided with much assistance at all. Our system appears to be built on crisis and not on heading off crises. So, here we sit with little money coming in, dwindling funds in our checking account, mounting medical bills and facing foreclosure on our home and we're being told that it would be better to wait until all these issues converge into one humungous tidal wave!

It's like we are being told that we must be actively drowning before anyone even will consider throwing us a floatation device.