Joe-Nuthin’s
Guide to Life, by Helen Fisher.
Neurodiversity: the 21st century’s current euphemism for the many psychological illnesses and anxieties that beset modern society. In the ‘Old Days’, anyone who was afflicted with a mental illness was just that: mental, but these days there has been a concerted effort to bring the neurodiverse into daily life, to integrate them into ‘normal’ society, thus helping them to live their very best lives.
In
theory, for ‘normal’ society can be anything but.
Such
a person is Joe-Nathan. He calls himself that (his proper name might be Jonathan)
because two names are like Dinner and Dessert – should anyone ask. Joe lives with his widowed mother Janet, and
works for the Compass Store, a big supermarket whose Boss Hugo sees the Brownie
points accruing for employing Joe, who has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but
comes to like and admire him anyway, not only for his ruthless attention to
detail, but also for the fact that Joe-Nathan is a lovely young man, stricken
by a cruel syndrome, but with the help if his indomitable Mum, making the very
best of things.
Except
for workmates Mean Charlie and his mate Owen: they
delight in calling him names – Joe-Nuthin – and threatening to open cans of red
sauce because they know that anything red upsets him terribly – BUT! Joe is not without friends who will defend
him, particularly workmate Chloe, whose language is so bad that Joe makes her a
swear-box that he calculates will make her rich within a year. Chloe puts Mean Charlie in his place with a
physical attack so violent Boss Hugo is forced to consult HR, resulting in Mean
Charlie’s sacking.
Job
done! Time for all to live in happy
diversity ever after, but life, particularly these days, seldom follows the
best script: Joe’s darling mum has a
fatal heart-attack and Joe is forced to face vast, monstrous changes in his
life, living alone being just the first;
however, Janet has anticipated life for Joe and his struggles after her
death and to that end has left two books of instructions, the first a ‘how-to’
cook, clean, repair etc’, and the second more important advice about friends
and how to treat them, particularly if one wanted to keep them – which makes
Joe think of Mean Charlie and the fact that he might have more sadness in his
life than everyone thinks, particularly when Joe inadverdently sees all of Charlie's bruises. It’s time to make a new friend,
and Joe has decided that for good or ill, Mean Charlie is the one!
Helen
Fisher has written a beautiful story on friendship, the courage to be ‘other’,
especially when there is no choice, and the beauty and necessity of humanity’s desire
for affection. My heart was full at
story’s end. Thanks HEAPS, Ms Fisher! SIX STARS
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