James Weathersbee is the chaplain at Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Augusta, Maine. Since James has started in that role eight years ago, we have become friends; He comes to speak at the school where I teach each year. He comes once for health class, and he speaks on mental illnesses. He comes again in January as our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day chapel speaker. Having grown up a black man in Louisville, Kentucky, he has some unique insight into this topic.
In turn, I bring my class up to the hospital where he works and they do a chapel presentation each October, and I go up - usually with my daughter, Rose - each spring to do our show. Yesterday was the time for my annual trip up to Augusta this year. Unfortunately, rose had a babysitting commitment, so I went alone. James is one of her favorite adults, too, and she loves to joke with him. She'll just have twice as much to say next year!
I did about an hour long program in the gym for the general population, and it went as well as any show in recent memory. Not only was my juggling 'on', but the audience was very receptive. Many times this can be a tough audience, as so many of the patients are in there dealing with depression or on strong sedatives. For whatever reason, this year they were quick to laugh, applaud and participate. It was very apparent that one of the ladies was a Muslim and an African immigrant (or, more likely, refugee). Mental illness respects no religions and no cultures. She thanked me for the show afterward, and was clearly enjoying herself. Once again it reminded me that we can befriend and respect those of different faiths without watering down what we each believe or pretending there's no difference in our theologies.
A gentleman came up to me afterwards as well and asked if he could pray for my ministry. How humbling as this handsome young man put his hand on my shoulder and prayed for me. I thought I was going there to give to them, and I was the one being blessed.
In classic Chaplain James form, he sprung a new and unexpected idea on me. He said this time he really wanted to bring my show onto the closed ward. These are the patients who are either dangerous and / or awaiting a ruling on whether they are mentally capable of standing trial for a given crime. Of course, I jumped at the chance, and we scrambled to pull enough props together to do a 20 minute gig in another wing of the hospital. Next time, if we plan ahead, we'll be able to allow enough time between gigs to set up a full program on this unit, too. I look forward to it.