We have witnessed horrible things happening lately. Starting with the Russian Doping and the
bombing of Paris. Such things are
outside of any coherent paradigm, we need to be stupid and crazy to understand
such behavior. What we can understand is
the behavior of Debi Thomas (Olympic Medal skier and Orthopedic Surgeon), we
can understand the situation in the sense of knowing where it comes from. It is a tragedy! It is even worst for the people who supported
and pushed Debi to accomplish what she did. We have done the effort to support somebody
going to our limits, and we know the feeling.
Unfortunately, Debi does not see how low the fall was. We have written posts regarding this subject:
28 sept. 2012
13 juil. 2012
19 avr. 2013
We wrote articles from the point of view of our
experiences, and what we see in Debi´s case is lack of education and lack of
support system to keep the uneducated functioning after the age of 40 if the
learning process does not take place.
She was subsequently forced to close her practice and live in a trailer
park with her fiance, Jamie Looney - who is battling an alcohol problem and
anger issues - and his two sons.
She also lost custody of her own 13-year-old son, Christopher Jules
'Luc' Bequette.
Thomas now lives with Looney and his sons in a trailer that she says
infested with bed bugs.
In a promotional video for tomorrow's interview, Vanzant asks Thomas
about her circumstances, and she responds that she's 'frustrated'.
'Frustrated?' Iyanla repeats.
'Not sad, not angry, not ashamed?'
'No,' Thomas responds.
'Not guilty that you've got
a man, two kids and a bedbug infestation in a trailer?' Iyanla continues.
'Frustration is what you
feel? Nothing else?'
Thomas then breaks down in
tears.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3308009/Champion-Olympic-skater-certified-surgeon-Debi-Thomas-reveals-broke-living-bed-bug-infested-trailer-lost-custody-son.html#ixzz3rxSx4IMI
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We did an exercise with our kids to learn from Debi,
and we found traces at very early age. The
article was written when Debi was 21 years-old.
Lack of education was present then, and it was never addressed by a
loved one; it ended up destroying her when the support system failed:
THE
NIGHT WHEN IT ALL SLIPPED AWAY : A Year Ago, Debi Thomas Didn't Skate, or
Behave, Like a Champion
As the
first black skater to achieve international, or even national, prominence, she
was a champion, however reluctant, of minorities. Even though she said that she
wanted to be known as a skater, not as a black skater, she could not deny that
she felt responsibility as a role model.
She was a champion of the underprivileged,
which she did not mind so much because it allowed her mother to take some
credit. In figure skating, the underprivileged are all those whose parents earn
less than six figures each year. Thomas' mother, divorced when Debi was a small
child, earned considerably less than that as a computer programming analyst in
Sunnyvale, Calif. But she sacrificed whatever she had to assure that her daughter
could pursue her goals.
Then,
on the podium for the awards ceremony, she ignored the rules of sportsmanship,
failing to acknowledge Witt, the gold medalist, and Manley, the silver
medalist, even when they tried to congratulate her for winning the bronze
medal. Afterward, at a press conference, she did not take responsibility for
her failure to win, instead blaming her coach of 10 years.
It was a fall greater than any she had
ever taken on the ice, this fall from grace.
In the year since, Thomas, 21, has
developed a less than flattering reputation within the figure skating world.
People who have organized various shows in which she has performed, and those
who have publicized them, and even some of the other skaters, say that she is
demanding and temperamental, as if, they say, she expects to be treated as the
gold medalist that she never became.
In Mexico, the support system is very limited after
finishing High School. In the USA, one
is sheltered in College and even in a Residency by the system. Things changed after Residency, and a Surgeon
can hardly survived after 45 years of age without bouts of burning out. A Medical Doctor needs a net to survive after
a Residency to avoid burning out; one needs to be educated to create “nets.” The education at 18 years of age is very
limited, and far from teaching us how to create nets; all our athletes have
failed after that age. We work
countercurrent to teach how to create nets but most of the time we have failed
too.
