In the early 1990s, Patch Adams was invited by the British Holistic Medical Association to give a short workshop. I’d read his book called Gesundheit!, loved it and was keen to meet the man in person.
Dressed in motley and with a red nose, he told a story of considerable suffering early in life, which led him to want to relieve suffering in others. Indeed, the name ‘Patch’ was given to him because he ‘patched’ up the life of a close friend for many years.
In 1998, the movie, Patch Adams, was released to generally poor reviews, saying things like ‘one saccharine Robin Williams movie too far’. But this was no Robin Williams creation; this was mainly the story of a remarkable healer. All scenes with Patch as a doctor seem true to his biography. A subplot about the murder of a woman is an unfortunate digression and distraction. Despite the reviews, the film was a huge box office success. Everyone’s either seen the film or heard of the name Patch Adams. It is one of the most inspiring films about a real doctor that you will ever see.
Patch showed me that it was good to be cheerful as a doctor, to make patients laugh and that empathy and kindness can be delivered with humour and warmth. It was a lesson that I would never forget. I attended clowning classes but found that clowning was not the sort of humour that came naturally to me. I would find that in the world of stand-up comedy, but I’ll never forget Patch, his smile and his love for all of humanity. As Auden puts it:
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
This ‘error’ was not bred in the bones of Patch Adams. The ‘universal love’ he showed us all was perhaps even excessive. I saw him speak a few years later in London and an audience member asked him how he could reconcile so much love of humanity in general with having a family. For a brief moment, the loving clown looked sad and confessed for the first time that he and his wife were getting divorced because she couldn’t easily relate to him loving the children of the world as much as their children. It was a moment of rare honesty in front of a large audience, typical of a man who felt at one with everyone he met and, with a twinkle in the eye, laughed with you at everything.