Living with Quiggles: Freedom in All Forms

By the end of the war, there were over 600 of them in all -- Brits, Canadians, New Zealanders and Aussies.  Sir Archibald wasn't "just" an innovative surgeon, he was also intent on defeating stigma and knew that these pilots were both physically and emotionally scarred, and in all likelihood would be ostracized (and stigmatized) by the very people they were protecting.  With the fear that he was "fixing" men who wouldn't have a life to which to return, a busy surgeon in the midst of a war found the time to start an initiative to integrate "his boys" into the families of the local community.  He prevailed upon friends (who recruited their friends) to invite these pilots into their homes as guests.  Talk about destigmatization up close and personal ... exactly in my opinion where defeating stigma in healthcare needs to begin.

I've always wondered just how widespread the impact The Guinea Pig Club has been on the British culture down through the generations, especially upon people who wouldn't have experienced WWII firsthand.  Although it took me a few visits to realize what it was, it eventually dawned upon me that I was more comfortable in England because no one, and I mean that literally, not one person ever asked me a personal question about any one of my quiggles.  Yes, there is that notoriously famous British reserve angle, but I wonder if it is more that they learned to look at (figure of speech) missing limbs, wheelchair users, people with burns, etc. with a different perspective -- perhaps wondering if they might be walking past a hero to whom they owed their freedom.  Maybe the Guinea Pig Club was the genesis of a cultural perspective regarding stigma that benefits us all.

The Guinea Pig Club members didn't just lead the stand against Hitler, they also fought for the rest of their lives, or perhaps better put, to regain their lives, this time not with Spitfires but with an equally powerful weapon, humor.  When the Club's first secretary had badly burned fingers, and their treasurer burned legs, they would remark on the advantages - "the meeting notes would be short" and "the treasurer would never run away with the club's funds".   British humor at its best, or worst, depending upon your perspective - and proving up the academic Erving Goffman's statement:  "The normal and the stigmatized are not persons, but rather perspectives."

It seems clear in retrospect that the members of the Guinea Pig Club held the perspective that confronting stigma was as worthwhile a fight as confronting Hitler - both tyrants intent on stealing freedom.