Phone call restores perspective

These days, when a storm front is approaching, I can feel it in my knuckles.
The combination of age and a lifetime of work at typewriters and computers has given me some variation of carpal tunnel or arthritis.
Most of the time, it’s just a nuisance. But the knuckles really start buzzing when a low pressure system is on the way.
That’s when I need a call from Andy.
Andy’s an old friend who lives in Pasadena. He calls about ever six weeks or so, and the staff has learned that when the call comes in I am useless for the better part of half an hour.
Inevitably, Andy will have me laughing within seconds after I’ve picked up the phone. His laugh — the laugh of a little Jewish guy six months older than me — is enough to get me laughing all by itself. It’s that infectious.
We’ve been friends for something approaching 30 years now, and he still tells stories about a visit to Portland with his dog not long after we first met. The twins ran the dog ragged, playing with it so enthusiastically it slept for nearly a day when Andy took it home.
But a call from Andy isn’t just about old times and laughter.
It’s about perspective.
You see, Andy’s been unable to work for some time.
While I’m dealing with an occasional buzz in the knuckles, he’s fighting the most pernicious and painful type of arthritis, the kind that has resisted treatment, the kind that delivers pain so intense it sometimes knocks Andy unconscious.
He lives in a world where any change in the weather can be devastating physically. At a time when he should be at his prime professionally — he’s a former bureau chief for The Associated Press in Los Angeles — he’s involuntarily retired thanks to his illness.
And yet, even when he’s recounting various treatments and medications, I have never, ever heard him feel sorry for himself.
It’s not in his DNA.
Instead, this guy — who has trouble with little things like standing and sitting and walking — is teaching a citizenship class to a group of Hispanics who are in this country legally and want to build a future in America.
When he’s not doing that, he helps teach a class in English as a foreign language.
Most recently, he’s been working with an international rescue organization, helping a group of Iranians who fled their country’s repressive regime as they try to acclimate to life in the United States.
If he’s feeling up to it, he may also do a stint as a docent at an art museum.
And when school’s back in session, there will be writing and journalism after-school programs for middle school kids to conduct.
I don’t know about you, but I find that a pretty humbling laundry list of activities.
And sometimes, when I hear someone complaining about their aches and pains or difficulties that have come their way, it occurs to me that everybody needs an Andy, someone to give them a call, provoke a belly laugh, and help them get things back into focus.[[In-content Ad]]