Adonis Diaries

Learning to navigate a bazar: Red Illusion of level 5

The final phase of living illusion

Nothing to sell. Desiring nothing to buy

The story came in a night dream, and I acted in a part of it in the dream, before I forced myself to wakefulness.

The Club/Pension/Center/Institution has all the amenities your heart desired in a green, clean and spacious environment.  You had a large studio that you could design and furnish, and a large balcony.

You could exercise in any game you wanted, especially those team games you were discarded in your previous life.

The Not so dangerous team games were encouraged such as ping pong (table tennis), badminton, Bache/boule/petanque, horse shoe throwing…

Basket ball, volley ball and soccer/rugby games were prohibited. Instead, the residents were provided with many corner basket hoops, soccer nets… to exercise your skills and dribbles by hands or feet. A trainer could also be hired to teach you a few tactics for passing balls with a couple other residents so that you feel encouraged to play on handling balls inside nets…

The basket was lower than standard in order not to hurt your shoulder. You couldn’t notice the difference: first, you get shorter by age, and second it’s easier to fool yourself that all is normal and standard in the institution.

The residents could go out of the premises, except during fixed schedules when they had to stay put in the Center. They had no personal cars and were prohibited to drive. Family members and recognized friends could fetch the resident for a journey out. These excursions became rare: the purpose of this incarceration was Not to invest any more time on the resident.

The resident could call on taxis, but with companies contracted out by the institution to report the whereabouts of the resident.

The many residents were not aware that they are very sick, not capable of living on their own or in a terminal phase. There were cures for a few ailments but you had to be able and ready to spend times in airports. You had to carry two suitcases, one full of money and the other one pretty light to spend a few weeks in hospitals around the world: submitting to various health protocols.

Residents wouldn’t know that they are in a acute health predicament until they connected and interacted with their companions. The trick is to let you tacitly recognize that you are one of the patients and need close care.

The nurses wore casual non-nursing white closes, except the standard customized white shoes/sandals, which discriminated them from the other employees.

Friday dinner was an occasion to display your latest attire acquisition.

These institutions were mostly funded by the State/city from a portion of the retirement check of the residents.

Two essential parts in that story:

1. How the family managed to convince you that the center was in fact a better place to opt as residence.
2. How you finally come to recognize that you are indeed in a health institution, for a long-term treatment.

Note:

I worked for over a year in a full-service retirement home. It was not a home, but a 10-story building close to downtown San Francisco. Elderly residents lived in small rooms and came down to the restaurant for 3 meals. Those residents very sick or faking to be, had their meals served in their rooms.

For about 6 months, the city dispatched a van with a driver to tour the residents around the city, sort of getting connected with the outside world. I took photos of the trip and wrote a story about the journey to be published in a monthly bulletin for prospecting clients and their families.

 The less fortunate residents of the retirement home had to use a common shower and WC facility at end of a long corridor. The carpet frequently didn’t look dignified.

A few functional residents dawned on them that they could rent an apartment and live on their own for much less, and in a nicer environment.

A few residents threw themselves off their windows and those who passed away were handled in the night.

The employees enjoyed shared rooms and 3 meals for working 14 hours a week. Any overtime was paid less than minimum wages. They handled all the functions such as cleaning rooms, washing, cooking, serving meals and manning the front desk

Many European students applied for this facility in summer time in order to visit California and the targeted touristic sites.