Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I got an SOS from two Mansion aides today, they thought Jean was slipping into a depression, they were worried about her. They asked if I had any ideas about lifting her up. I did.

It is not simple living in assisted care even in the best of times. For many of the Mansion residents, these are not the best of times. The Danforth Care Center graciously agreed to take in the displaced Mansion residents until repairs are finished there.

But they are especially fragile, and this is one of the worst things that can happen to them.

It has been very hard of them, one of the most difficult things for the advanced elderly to endure is to be pulled from safe environments in a hurried way and thrust into a strange environment. Each one has been affected in their own way, many have gotten colds or brief fevers, others are simply confused or depressed, they want to go where it is familiar. They want to go back to the Mansion.

The staff and the Army of Good have thrown themselves into this breach, we have built a temporary activity room filled with books and puzzles and gotten a DVD player and some movies to relieve the boredom and disorientation. Julie Smith as been coming to the Danforth every day to read to the residents and talk to them.

So have Red and I, and Maria has come on several visits as well. I asked the aides some questions about Jean, a called a psychologist who specializes in elder care, I talked to Maria and the aides and sorted through my own experiences in hospice and assisted care work.

I came up with the idea of giving Jean a second comfort baby doll, she loves the first one so much, I thought it might lift her up, jar her out of a deepening funk.

I got her some diapers and clothes for the new doll. Maria and I went to Wal-Mart after lunch to buy the baby doll, we found a good-sized one, somewhat similar to the comfort doll I got her six months, ago, she was the first resident in the Mansion to get one.

The danger of the comfort dolls is that the residents can become too deeply attached to them, and worry about them so much they forget to be active and take care of themselves. Jean is already reluctant to leave her comfort doll in her room, but the doll has given her so much pleasure and purpose everyone involved believes it has been valuable to her.

We brought the doll to Jean around 2 p.m.,  and the change in her was dramatic. She smiled, talked, even joked with me and Maria. She laughed when she saw the doll and instantly agreed to get up (for the first time in a day) and go outside of her room and show her new baby to the other Mansion residents who were gathered in the Activity Room/Chapel that has been set up for them.

Jean sat down with both babies in her arm while eating a popsicle given her as a treat. She was animated, happy, the aides were relieved, she had come up out of the darkness. The baby doll did the trick, it gave her purpose and focus, something to nurture and love.

I talked about the baby doll with the Mansion staff, and we all agreed that I should take the new baby home with me and bring it to Jean on my visits to the Mansion. Let her get used to it gradually, and not have the chance to focus on it too much.

They were worried about the responsibility and worry she would feel for two baby dolls, we all thought it best to move cautiously and deliberately. I told Jean I wanted to take the baby and care for her while she was at the Danforth, and she nodded, and said that was a good idea, and hugged the baby – she named it “Honey” – and kissed it goodbye.

She looked so much better, we told her she would be returning to the Mansion soon, and she said that a good thing. “I feel much better today than I did yesterday, ” she said.

I felt good to hear that. The work at the Mansion is proceeding  rapidly. It is hoped that some of the residents will be able to come back on Friday, or possibly Monday.

The residents are very happy to hear it. I pray for them to get home, it has been a difficult time for them, and for the people who care for them, and for their families.

This tender work is precious to me, and to Maria. It is somewhere between therapy and medicine, but we can fill some of the holes in their lives. Do good in the real world. Every day. This week has been a trial for the residents and staff, in a curious way, another gift for me. And another chance for the Army Of Good to do Practical Good.

Another chance for the Mansion workers to show their dedication and love.

Next week, a Homecoming Celebration, courtesy of the AOG: Chinese food and music. It will be a joyous event. Jean with have both babies with  her for that.

There are a lot of fascinating people in my acting class. Christine Decker, our teacher, is a wonderful actor,  and an intuitive teacher, and I’ve already met a professor, a pastor, a bunch of young actors and a fascinating and creative young man named Holden.

Holden is 22, he works in Massachusetts as a general contractor, but that is his day job, his passion in life is Live Acting Role Playing, (LARP) one of the most creative  and challenging and little known subcultures in the digital world, and in all of  culture.

Live Acting Role Playing is a form of real world and online role-playing – inspired, I think, by the Dungeons and Dragons games – where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue different goals – hunting, finding, “killing” playing. The setting takes place in the real world, the players interact with one another in character.

It is really all about acting, creating and drama.

There is a farm outside of my town of Cambridge – I’ve never been there – where role players gather four or five times a year to act out their different scenarios. Holden role plays there.

There are many variations to role-playing. The rules vary also.

The outcome of the player roles and actions are often mediated by game rules or determined by voting or consensus among the players. The event hosts and arrangers are called gamemasters, they choose the setting and the rules to be used to manage play.

The first LARP’s were run in the late 1970’s, during the rise of tabletop games and genre fiction, online and off. Dungeons and Dragons was the mother of these and other offshoots of gaming. The play might be a simple game or a complex dramatic or artistic play or other expression of creativity.

The gamers live in an alternate universe sometimes – few outsiders know what they are doing, how complex and creative and obsessive and stimulating it is. They truly live in another world, colorful, intense and expanding. Few parents or educators or politicians can even begin to grasp it’s complexity and reach.

This is where Holden came in, he say she took the class to enhance his acting skills for his LARP work, but he seems to be a natural actor, comfortable before a crowd and authentic. I’ve always seen the gaming culture as one of the most compelling and creative cultures in the country, even though it is still a subterranean culture, not recognized by mainstream media or the cultural trendsetters of the coasts and media.

It was great to talk to Holden last night, and good for him. He is serious about nurturing and expanding his creativity.

His games are not far from the farm, I hope we can get him to visit or invite me to one. I will enjoy watching him grow in class.

I went to my second acting class Monday, taught by Christine Decker of the Old Castle Theater Company in Bennington, Vt. Christine brought out a red carpet for Red, who blended in beautifully with the class.

I will never have another dog like Red, he was a bit confused at first, then settled down and watched intently as the class did improve and read their monologues.

Christine like my choice of monologues – T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song Of J. Alfred Pruflock, one of the great dramatic monologues. She wanted it shorter, with less emphasis on rhyming, and she wanted me to “taste” each word, Eliot’s words are so beautiful.

She loved the choice, but I have work to do on this poem. I didn’t cry when I read it, however, I think that was a first.

Red has been invited back to all of the classes, that dog can go anywhere anytime and figure things out.

Half the class is improv, and that is hard for me. I am great with a podium in front of me talking about one of my books, but improv will take some getting used to. It is not a comfortable medium for me, although I enjoyed it more tonight.

I like being opened up and need being opened up. The class is good for me, just as Christine suggested. I am the oldest person in the class, which is interesting.