" Chaplins have the sacred duty to create a world of inspired thoughts, holy works, divine visions each revealed by the spirit within that flow from the source of Great Goodness, Truth, and Beauty."
robert r. lackney, chaplain
Reflection: The Training of the Chaplin
My first visit to a state hospital was years earlier in 1953. A 15 years old, a cub draftsman with Britsch and Munger architects. Assigned to Willis Vogel, the field superintendent for the office we were to measure several “Wards” that needed minor repairs to the interior finishes.
These trips into a state mental institution would affect my thinking for many years. My first project assignment under Mr. Vogel was to observe, record, and draw the floor plans of six existing buildings.
For years the images of men and women living alone in institutions has become my witness through these daily trips to the woman’s wards, the men's wards, Building 15, would haunt my memories.
Memory fragments of an ear or a lip, or the back of a head, or a foot, a leg, a stomach, a thigh, eyes upon eyes staring into eyes. Smells of sweat. Smells of sex. Smells of loneliness. Smells of desires.
I saw every human thing.
Some would cry out and moan in their inner misery.
Others will scribble notes or pictures and say nothing.
A few would walk quietly and move from room to room.
Most of the patients were silent.
Many were anxious muttering to themselves comfortable in the red vinyl and chrome chairs in the dayrooms staring into the empty gray space before their eyes.
At the age of 15 years, I had been introduced to the “human condition” and had been given a glimpse of the “Other Side of the Post Card”.
At the age of 15 years, I had been introduced to the “human condition” and had been given a glimpse of the “Other Side of the Post Card”.
A youth witnessed human misery and ugliness in its most raw form.
A witness to the sacredness of suffering? Or, servant in “ TheValley of Tears”?
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Only Good Things
robert r. lackney, chaplin
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