Advice When Visiting a Sick/Injured Ultrarunner

Somehow on the net I wound up on this site where I read some great advice called The Ring Theory, on how you should react to a person with some crisis.  It works for all kinds of crises: medical, legal, financial, romantic, even existential.

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma. Now draw a larger circle around the first one. In that ring put the name of the person next closest to the trauma. Repeat the process as many times as you need to. In each larger ring put the next closest people. Parents and children before more distant relatives. Intimate friends in smaller rings, less intimate friends in larger ones. When you are done you have a Kvetching Order.

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, "Life is unfair" and "Why me?" That's the one payoff for being in the center ring.

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings.

When you are talking to a person in a ring smaller than yours, someone closer to the center of the crisis, the goal is to help. Listening is often more helpful than talking. But if you're going to open your mouth, ask yourself if what you are about to say is likely to provide comfort and support. If it isn't, don't say it. Don't, for example, give advice. People who are suffering from trauma don't need advice. They need comfort and support. So say, "I'm sorry" or "This must really be hard for you" or "Can I bring you a pot roast?" Don't say, "You should hear what happened to me" or "Here's what I would do if I were you." And don't say, "This is really bringing me down."

I needed this advice recently in talking to a friend, an Ultrarunner who could no longer run (back problems combined with an endocrinogical type disease).  Thankfully, without knowing about The Ring Theory I was able to do the right  thing anyway.

I asked him about missing trail running and he talked about that loss, and how he hoped he'd still be able to do some walking to get some woodsy time.  I didn't tell him about my latest backcountry adventure or anything like that until he asked, and then I kept it short and factual until he probed further.  Then I offered more detail.

So, go check out The Ring Theory.