While walking my dog early one Summer morning along a quiet lane on Fire Island, I crossed paths with her as she walked her little white poodle. As a dog walker at 7:30am, she looked like any other dog walker . I recognized her nonetheless but didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable so I pretended not to know who she was. As her dog began to “do her business”, I asked if she needed plastic. She said no thanks she had some but then as the dog pooped she drolly quipped –” An exciting moment’. Feeling shy, I was much too star struck to speak. I said nothing and walked on. But as I walked away I had one of those–“Damn, I should have said” moments what the French call: ” l’esprit d’ escalier..”. the spirit of the staircase. I should have said to her; “Yeah ,for me too”.
Passing by her home, on another Summer’s day, I noticed that she had placed some items along the side of the path for passersby to take. One that caught my eye was a small plastic plaque of a rescue ship outlined in white, underneath was the word; “RELIEF”. As a group therapist I thought: “This would make a great little wall piece in my office”. So I picked it up and now it rests on a wall in my group treatment room. More than one patient has said that it feels like an apt description of their feeling in therapy. I smiled and would have loved to have told them where I got the plaque but thought better of it. The timing would not have been therapeutic. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tina Fey for her, until now unrecognized, contribution to my group therapy practice.
