The Maholian Way - Part Two: The Maholian Way in the lives of two

Josh had a particular set of issues in his life, and this determined the people in his planning group and the plans that emerged. For others, these things would be determined by their own issues and circumstances. Their plans might contain any combination of the following: counselling, drug or alcohol therapy or rehabilitation, education, housing, health care for mental or physical conditions, reconnection with family, pairing up with a mentor, participation in recreational activities or community organisations, and paid or voluntary work.

All who could do so were encouraged to work or contribute to others in some way, because this gave them regular human contact, purposeful activity, a chance to develop themselves, and something to be acknowledged for and feel proud about. Not everyone could achieve full-time or open employment. Sometimes they needed supported employment, and sometimes they worked for a reduced wage – because their productivity was lower – but also retained part of a government benefit. Often they would start with this arrangement and then graduate to a full wage rate. Sometimes they were only in a fit state to work sporadically, particularly if they suffered from a serious mental illness. Often supported employment agencies would act like labour hire firms, guaranteeing to provide clients with a certain number of person-hours of work, and then filling this quota with whoever was available at the time. Voluntary work was another possibility, or tasks undertaken in a social program, such as setting up furniture, serving food or cleaning up. But whatever it was and however they did it, the important thing was that, if at all possible, people contributed in some way.

Thus, it was through this form of co-ordinated social investment that most of those in Lynvale who had serious debilitating issues in their lives were able to participate in the area’s newly developing economy.

A few weeks after Josh moved back with his mother, he had some news for her. He was going to be a father. In the desperate days before he broke into Joan’s house, he had a fling with a young woman named Zoe. She had been living in a share house he had occasionally stayed at, in a suburb near Lynvale.

When Zoe realised she was pregnant, Josh was in the rehabilitation community. She decided to keep the child – she didn’t exactly know why – and at first thought she wouldn’t tell Josh, but later changed her mind. So she met up with him and told him just after he left the rehab centre. At that stage she was in a bad way: not sure if she was doing the right thing by having the baby, frequently depressed, self-medicating with marijuana, and still smoking cigarettes. While she wanted Josh to know, she didn’t know him as a man, and so she resisted his suggestion that they live together and ‘try and make a go of it’. He was two years younger than her, only 19, a boy really. But did she want this child to grow up without a father? She had never known her own father, and her mother was often depressed, intoxicated  and disengaged, and frequently in unsatisfactory relationships with men. Would she turn out like her mother? From about the age of ten Zoe had largely raised herself and her little sister. At 17 she had left school and home, and since then had moved around constantly, worked intermittently, had various relationships and used dope heavily. She knew nothing about pregnancies or babies; since confirming the pregnancy with a self-testing kit she hadn’t even been to a doctor. She knew she wasn’t being very responsible, but she just felt flat and fatalistic about the whole thing.

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