Playing with a half-deck

My job the other day was to proofread a semi-scholarly paper on improving the quality of care in nursing homes. (Snooze.) It became entertaining, in a more or less perverse way, about halfway through when I started observing the intellectual contortions scholars have to go through trying to solve problems when they don't acknowledge the biblical ABCs of life-like sin, and God.

The paper uncovers the problem that all is not a bed of roses behind the walls of Sleepy Hollow Nursing Home. Some residents have been known to behave badly. And then again, some nursing staff and families of residents have been known to behave badly.

The paper's presupposition is that more "knowledge" and "communication" will solve our problems. For example, we need to educate caregivers that residents with dementia who curse them out have no control over their behavior. (That is possibly true, and more than I can know.) "Lack of knowledge in these areas has been implicated in complaints of abuse of nursing home residents."

Another big issue is endemic tension between nursing staff and families of residents. One expert's solution: "Given the different perspectives families and nursing staff bring to the care giving situation, combined with individual personality characteristics, there is an urgent need for educational programs that include conflict-resolution skills."

More knowledge is good, and communication is good, and conflict resolution skills can't be bad. But it's frustrating to see secular scholars forever playing with just half a deck of cards. I worked in a nursing home two summers during my college years. I found that a lot of people just plain hated each other-and they communicated that just fine.