Private Stuff

There’s another reason why I’m here. It was hard for a bloke like me to admit this at first, but that’s something else I’m learning. You see we always had to stand up to things. You didn’t have time to indulge, and you didn’t expect any sympathy if you did. That was how we survived. So when I came down with this depression I felt it had to be hidden, it showed too much weakness, would make me vulnerable. I couldn’t reveal it. But Dr Zoe’s been showing us in a workshop how that sort of behaviour actually harms you—that old way of thinking’s not good. So we’re learning about men’s behaviour and we’re learning new labour skills. And as the programme says—where’s that bit about Work Therapy? Here it is:

We find useful work re-liberates the creative potential of our clients,
especially when we immerse them in a dialogic community situation. It rescues
them from the home imprisonment that many people excluded from the Work
Community face, especially those who suffer from personality disorders.

But it’s more than that. As Dr Douce says: ‘But work isn’t all; it must be tempered with spirituality or life’s meaningless’.

I suppose the strike was just another load of that old-fashioned macho confrontation—not like the social dialogue we’re learning here, but we did feel grand. I never felt more proud.