Working on the weekends

Dear Friends of Blue Heron Retreat:

I am truly upset about an incident that has taken place here this weekend.

I would appreciate your input as regular sesshin-goers and friends of the place here.

While this is long, I am not sure what to leave out in making this story as accurate as possible.

Yesterday, a man who has worked here on the property for years doing various jobs, mostly for Enrico and Nadia, was asked by Enrico to return to work in what I consider to be a totally inappropriate manner.

1. The man, who many of you know, but I will call "J" for now, recently fell deathly ill with a brain infection. He was in the hospital for a month, and just was released few weeks ago to rest at home. 

When I saw him a few days ago, for the first time since he was released from the hospital, he was pale and---although coherent---not able to speak or stay standing for more than a few minutes without tiring. He said, "I am sorry, I have to go home. I am glad to see you, but I may look okay on the outside, I am very tired on the inside and don't feel myself. When I was in the hospital I couldn't remember simple words to speak, couldn't remember many things and sometimes did not recognize family members."

Now, with less than a week past, I woke up to hear the truck nearby as he was loading up trash to take to the dump about 20 miles away.

(you can see photo of work done above)

This is a inconsequential task that could have been done anytime in the coming week at the very soonest. And it also was the Friday day after Thanksgiving.

I went up to him and asked him if he thought he was healthy enough be working. I was unable to do this dump drive myself this last week as I had planned, because Enrico has recently hidden the keys to the pick-up truck that is usually used for this job here. 

I asked him to please take more time to rest, and saw that he continues to be pale, he remains in appearance weak... and although coherent, still is not speaking as functionally as his usual state at all!

I did ask him if the doctors said he was okay to do physical labor, and he did not confirm this directly. Instead he said, "The doctor said I should be okay to work in a few weeks." So that means to me he has not had a check-up in order to confirm the effect of physical labor on his health at this point in time. Again, this was a life-threatening brain infection that required him to spend a whole month in the hospital.

2. This is the latest in a series of events that have been quietly taking place here on Blue Heron.

I will be noting them in the future posts here as it seems appropriate.