Naaman Hits Bottom
by Jacqueline Wallen
It starts as a stock dysfunction myth
A diseased hero looking for a royal cure
a king, helpless because his power doesn’t extend to healing,
And a household full of codependent women, all with good advice.
Everyone trying hard but getting nowhere.
Then an outsider suggests a prophet healer.
But (and isn’t this the way it always goes—
you finally get them some help and they’re too good for it!)
Naaman identifies out --
the healer lacks class, and so does the cure
and, besides, where’s the fawning welcome his stature merits?
Doesn’t that prophet know how special Naaman is?
The healer (through his servant)
bids Naaman bathe in the unworthy Jordan.
But no, Naaman wants a much more glamorous cure.
Then a slave girl dares to ask what’s lost by trying.
Letting go of his pride, that’s the real miracle,
as he enters the holy water and is healed.
Jacqueline Wallen is a clinical social worker with a practice of psychotherapy and an Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park.
