We have good reasons to celebrate our inclusive sense of community, but we must not flatter ourselves. We isolate and exclude, as well. And that betrays vanity and a lack of social vision.
In our community, we isolate people who are no longer productive or "useful" to us, or who we prefer to avoid.
We stow away our elders in impersonal "homes" and ignore them because they are no longer productive for us. We willingly forget the very souls who created our own lives.
We isolate older people because they are troublesome -burdensome - and in our way.
Those living with mental illnesses who are also in their elder years are doubly affected.
A great friend, and Roberts Creek luminary, said it best in an interview a year ago.
"I was a good man around here for a long time. I worked hard and me and my wife and my kids gave all we had to this place. I mean, I was a good family man, and a good husband, and a good father. I worked hard on our land and for my place.
"But I became sick. I got depressed. I got old. And then people started to kind of move away. What is that Alice's Restaurant line? They all moved away from me on the bench? Yeah. I was old and strange and depressed and they all moved away from me. And I had nowhere to go. I was so alone."
Old and strange, in the way - and isolated.
The opposite of isolation is inclusion, and that is what defines community. Inclusion.
It is mere self-flattery for comfortable and unchallenged folks who may be reading this column to say, "Oh, I sympathize. I feel so sorry."
That's just talk. Action walks.
In our community, there are hundreds of our elders who are lonely, bored, and ignored.
Who among us does not have the time to give to a solitary senior, isolated and living a life of endless tedium?
Who among us has the pluck and courage to have lunch at the Arrowhead Clubhouse and find a new friend? And invite that new friend for a walk, or a coffee?
If I must be absolutely literal about this, then I must say that each among us must devote an hour of our day to prevent the isolation that so many among us suffer. The elderly; the mentally ill; the socially estranged.
Yes, suffer. Because isolation is a social disease, and its cure is not medical; it can only come about only by a collective understanding - a social compact that binds us to a sense of goodwill and acceptance.
Politically, this is an area that is actionable.
A year ago, in this column, I issued a challenge to the current District of Sechelt and its various members, to produce what I called a "social vision."
Affordable housing, mental health and addiction, women's issues - these were among those subjects ignored by our local, elected politicians.
Social issues ought to be upper-most in our minds as the very fortunate members of the Sunshine Coast Community.
I hope and pray that actions follow, so that the isolation can be banished.
Editor's note: Hugh Macaulay is vice president of the Arrowhead Clubhouse Society. He writes monthly on mental health and social issues on the Coast for Coast Reporter.
