Editor’s note: This story is a follow up to a June 18 article, “Dr. Jim Withers to present at Albert Schweitzer Days,” in The Sopris Sun.
“Kindness is the highest expression of the spirit
in man.” – Dr. Albert Schweitzer
Earlier this summer, humanists gathered in Willits to view a film about the Street Medicine Institute. The next day, community members listened to conversations about Albert Schweitzer, the early days of the Aspen Institute and the value of service. These were just a few of the events that spanned the two-day inaugural celebration of Albert Schweitzer Day.
Schweitzer’s 1949 speech during the Goethe Bicentennial Convocation in Aspen inspired what Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke coined the “Aspen Idea.”
Dr. Jim Withers, founder of the Street Medicine Institute, gave the keynote speech. He spoke in detail about his calling to service work, particularly from a medical background. His own journey and leaving behind the insulated life of doctors in hospitals and offices was akin to that of Schweitzer over a century before.
“I decided I wanted to work with people who hated people like me,” explained Withers, having felt called to meet people in need where they were at — practicing medicine on the streets. His initial foray into inner-city areas of need was spent during his free time, between shifts at a hospital.
Withers initially found it challenging to meet people in urban environments willing to accept the care he offered. Many unhoused individuals resisted at first, not wanting to feel patronized. In demonstrating that was the opposite of his intention, Withers did a lot of listening. He built relationships with a few people who became willing to accept the service he was providing.
From there, he gradually learned where and how to offer medicine. The more he was able to help, the more he craved hands-on work in areas with the greatest need.
“The streets began to teach me what they needed,” he told the audience at the Aspen Historical Society. “And that’s been our guiding principle.” The Street Medicine Institute grew from his solitary, vigilante medical service into a small cohort of like-minded doctors and nurses, eventually resulting in what the organization is today.
Withers compared this type of medical field work to extreme athleticism. “The thing I love about mountain-climbing,” he said, “is that you get onto that mountain and you don’t get excuses. You have to just respond to the conditions around you with whatever you know and have in that moment.” Practicing street medicine is similar, he explained, emphasising the importance of empowering people. “It’s more important to know what person the disease has than what disease a person has.”
The work demands expanding one’s empathetic capacity, Withers noted. “I’d like to posit the importance of reverence for the reality of others,” he said, noting that the beliefs and emotional states of patients significantly influences which treatments will be most beneficial. One of the goals of the Street Medicine Institute, he shared, is “allowing people to be the author of their own healing.
Since its official launch, Street Medicine programs have spread to 80-plus locations around the world.
Withers believes that this work complements environmental protection and conservation. He argued that there are countless organizations advocating for protection and stewardship of ecosystems, but that the view of nature and man as separate is reductive.
“There’s a danger in dwelling [on] and honoring nature that we can forget about people all over the world — in other places — who are also nature and need our help,” he said.
Along those lines, Withers sees great opportunity for humanist action in today’s changing society.
“Albert Schweitzer was in a time of great turmoil and the fate of mankind. His vision was powerful and needed for that time. Now is just as critical,” he stated. “We’re really facing some serious issues. By honoring the basic humanistic values that Schweitzer taught, we can find our way through this.”
The action committee behind Albert Schweitzer Day events are working to expand the moment of recognition into a series. Discussions are in progress to identify a modern-day humanitarian to honor at the second Albert Schweitzer Day next year, and to fundraise for a prize and grant for service work.