Building gates

The gate pictured here may look like an ordinary (and pretty rudimentary) entrance to a fenced yard. But talk to the owner (Richard) and he'll tell you it's really the gate to heaven, which is what he calls his home.

Actually, make that Heaven, since the existence of a home owned by him shelters such an essential element of his happiness – of his life – that it deserves a proper noun, a name.

Richard grew up in an institution from age 6 to age 21 because “experts” at the time believed he was incapable of being educated. Released in 1971, Richard scrambled to make a life for himself, despite never being formally educated or socialized.

But he was smart enough to know he had to get help from people in power. Which is how he ended up in the office of then-Michigan Gov. William Milliken, who was so impressed with Richard's efforts to overcome the limits placed on him that he created a state agency mail-delivery job for him.

With a full-time job under his belt, Richard bought his dream: his own house.

Today, after 30 years with the state, Richard is retired and busy feeding squirrels on his patio. The gate gives him access to and from that patio, so he was desperate for a solution when it recently needed replacing.

When Richard couldn't find anyone to do the job, my husband and I hesitantly stepped up, hoping a YouTube video would see us through. Miraculously, it did.

Richard's next challenge is more daunting. He's taken to falling unexpectedly, requiring the assistance of friends and sometimes ambulance runs. That universally dreaded option has arisen: Does he need  to live somewhere other than his beloved home?

He is adamant that he wants to be “independent,” but what does that mean? For a good life, we cannot be totally independent. We need to depend on on each other. In fact, humans' ability to cooperate is what has allowed us to dominate – for better or worse –  all species on earth.

As I write in my book, this quote from George Eliot's “Middlemarch” is my lodestar: “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”

That should be the mantra for all of us – government, community, individuals.

If not quite heaven, it might help us create a better life for all.

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