"Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." Chief Seattle (1854)
When American pause to honor and reflect upon our veterans of military service some of the most often overlooked are the untold numbers of caregivers who risked their lives to help on the battlefields. Not only are these caregivers often forgotten, they have been discriminated against.
When Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross) first offered to organize women to help care for sick and wounded Civil War veterans she was not only turned down but derided for suggesting that "delicate" women could help soldiers. Fortunately, she persisted.
By the time of the Vietnam War, caregivers as medics and nurses were not only welcomed, but celebrated and embraced as they risked their lives to run to the aid of the fallen. (Indeed, they were honored while our soldiers were spit at when they, including unwilling draftees, returned from an unpopular and unnecessary war that America lost.)
Every loving caregiver is connected to every other who came before them by the Golden Thread woven by the first caregivers. Every loving caregiver is tied to every other caregiver who currently spends this day and night looking after the vulnerable. Every loving caregiver is linked to those who will yet come to reach out from their hearts to help others.
The Golden Thread of Loving Care is one of the three essential elements of Radical Loving Care (along with the concepts of Sacred Encounters/Sacred Work and The Servant's Heart.) Those who offer help to others only because they are paid to do so carry the simple rope of work rather than high-purpose calling.
It is only Golden Thread caregivers that symbolize the Love's light. The gold that flows through their hands (not from the caregiver but through him or her) is the way a caregiver can become a healer.
Today, like everyday, is a time to celebrate the commitment of caregivers past, present and future. Whether we have fallen in battle or succumbed to illness, it is the disciples of Love to whom we turn for help amid our suffering.
As we honor veterans, may we also honor, today, the veterans who have carried Love's Golden Thread across the history of civilization.
-Erie Chapman
