The Role of Patience in Our Work to Decriminalize Mental Illness

As a person who grew up inside a social service organization on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1970s – the early days of the deinstitutionalization of people with mental illness – I have a lack of patience when it comes to finding solutions to complex social problems. Why am I so impatient? Human lives are at stake. Compassion, creativity, and curiosity (the 3-Cs as I think of them) are the key ingredients to forging change. My impatience motivates me on all 3-C fronts to find and foster nontraditional solutions to complex problems, including the decriminalization of mental illness. ?

But is impatience serving me as well as it could? I began to ponder this as I worked from home this summer where I have a garden. This is rather preposterous since I strongly identify as a city dweller with little relationship to nature. Needless to say, I don’t have a green thumb. I rely on the plants to do their best—to exercise their natural will to live and, if I’m lucky, bloom—and if I am luckier, to survive.

Last year, I planted a rose of Sharon. These floppy flowers are gorgeous—they have two colors, one surrounding their stamen and another on their petals. As June turned to July, I waited for the rose of Sharon to bloom. Nothing. Not even a bud was on the plant. I blamed smoke from the wildfires, the heavy rains that damaged so much of my community, the drought that came before it—the wrath of climate change. Of course, I also blamed my lack of competence in the garden. Then came August, when I finally noticed a tiny bud and the gorgeous flowers that soon followed. I rued the time I had wasted wondering and waiting as that was all for naught; the flower had bloomed!

This got me thinking about patience. Some things take time, and not just flowers in the garden. We need not rush through processes that are underway—the unfolding of ideas, considering data and evidence to course correct, talking through challenges, and the integration of new facts into the beliefs we hold true in order to change our minds. Patience allows for reflection and deep listening.

Over the summer, as I waited for the rose of Sharon to bloom, I took time to reflect on the work of the Sozosei Foundation to date. This includes our ongoing efforts to decriminalize mental illness as well as some of our work that has had a different focus, namely: our Resilient Communities Program (RCP).?

The RCP operated from 2020-2022 to support under-resourced communities within a 50-mile radius of Princeton, NJ, Hayward, CA, and Rockville, MD. RCP made grants directly and through community foundations across various issues—from creative placemaking to access to healthcare. The Program is now on pause as the Foundation continues to grow and evolve. In the meantime, I am happy to share our reflections on the?RCP here; and, as always, I welcome your input on that report here.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer. Stay well and stay safe. Be patient and allow yourself the time to allow processes to unfold, consider new ideas, and enjoy the flowers that remain in bloom. ?

Melissa M. Beck, Esq.

Executive Director

Sozosei Foundation