11/29/2015
Growing Old REALLY Ain't For Sissies
GOAFS II: #162
GROWING OLD REALLY AIN’T FOR SISSIES
NOVEMBER 29,
2015
A tee-shirt
my wife’s father wore was the inspiration for the name of this Weblog—Growing Old Ain’t for Sissies. At the
end of November, 2003, when I posted the first Blog, Russell Mixter had passed
96 and was on his way to just short of 101. He was still getting warning
tickets for exceeding the hallway speed limit in his foot-powered wheelchair. I
occasionally mentioned something about aging in the early days but all kinds of
other things crept in.
My parent’s
experiences contributed a small part of my understanding of aging, Joan’s
parents contributed much more. Her mother died at 96. The reason I am writing
this one is that I have finally recognized that I am no longer a spectator of
“growing old ain’t for sissies”, but a full-fledged participant. I would not be
writing this now if I did not have something that some of you might profit
from.
First some context.
Joan and I moved here in May this year. Wesley Village is a comprehensive
senior living community. We had been here about 4 months when Joan went into
the hospital for gall bladder surgery—a relatively simple, low risk operation
with, at most, an overnight stay—“A walk in the park.” It is a long story and
some of you know it already. In a nutshell, the “walk in the park” turned into
a marathon with a finish line that moved ahead of her. She went home to Glory after
twenty-five days in intensive care, on September 7, this year.
I am 81 years
old and get a thorough physical every year from my internist who is a
perfectionist. I’m generally in good health, take a minimum of prescription
medicines, do not have diabetes, have not had chemo therapy for anything, have
never done or not done anything that would suggest a specific cause for what
ails me—but I have peripheral neuropathy,
bi-lateral, in both legs and both hands.
This is quite
common, especially among elderly people. They estimate that 20 million people have
some form of this condition which is a result of damage to the peripheral
nervous system. Google it and you will find that there are many possible
causes, many possible symptoms, and not much in the way of a cure. But there
are things you can do to manage it and it is seldom fatal.
I first
noticed it when my feet began to feel like I had my socks on, when I was
barefoot. Eventually I mentioned it to my Doctor who checked me over, and sent
me to a neurologist who confirmed the diagnosis but didn’t suggest any
treatment. My Doctor said I should eventually go to a physical therapist for an
evaluation and an exercise plan tailored to my specific needs.
I intended to
but it was not very troublesome and there was very little pain. I continued my
self-designed, occasional stretching exercises, the remnants of Joan’s rehab after
her heart surgery. Time passed, we got involved in moving to a retirement
facility and then my wife went to her reward. Now rewind about 6 months to when
it began to be troublesome. I began to
fall.
The first fall was coming out of the
pharmacy on a beautiful day. I was watching for cars in the parking lot and
most of mind was somewhere else. I stepped off the curb, my foot dropped and I
stumbled into a lovely roll on the black top. I had long sleeves, so there was
no blood, nothing broken and no serious damage. Had I rolled in front of a car
with a texting driver the result could easily have been permanent.
The second fall was a full stomach duet dive
outside the Bella Notte Restaurant. There is an exit directly out of the porch
room where the drop to the parking lot is only about an inch and a half. But my
eyes were up watching for a car that might turn into the lot and my mind was on
something other than the path of my feet. Just a step off that small drop
initiated a tumble. Somehow I managed a roll in such a way that Joan landed on
top of me. Again, there was no serious damage, not even a scraped arm or knee
or bumped head. But when I tried to stand up my left knee gave way and it took
a long time for it to get almost back to normal.
After that
fall, I started giving serious, concentration to my walking. I kept looking up
in my heart but down with my eyes. I planned and executed every movement on
foot meticulously and worked hard to maintain my focus, my concentration,
whenever I walked. It was not easy. Grampa Bob’s Observation came to mind; “I
used to be able to do three things at one time—now it often takes me three
times to do one thing”.
Some time
passed until the third fall caught
me, this time in the shadows of a low entrance ramp into the hospital parking
structure. It was at the end of day 18, I think, of Joan’s last battle. I was
commuting daily to the hospital, parking some distance from her bed in
intensive care. These were long, hard days for both of us. My mind wandered
momentarily and I stepped off the side of the “in” ramp and took a tumble onto
the concrete. I was fortunate once more, the only real damage was a patch of
blood spots on my left forearm where it hit the rough surface. After this I
redoubled my efforts to give close attention to my walking. I walked
defensively, wary, deliberately, single-mindedly.
Fall number four caught me at the doorway between the
kitchen and the garage in our home at Wesley village. These homes are designed
for old people. There is only one place that is not perfectly flat—a 5” drop
from the kitchen into the garage. I had memorized it quickly when we moved in.
I knew it was there and had no trouble with it in 6 months. But it had been a
long, tiring day. I had gone a variety of unfamiliar places and done a variety
of unfamiliar things. I was tired and going out the door to put the car into
the garage for the night. My attention wavered for just a moment, and I took
another tumble. Again there was no blood, nothing broken, just some achy
places.
As I was getting
myself up from the floor it finally dawned on me that one of the most serious threats of old age is the natural deterioration
of one’s ability to focus, to concentrate, to give careful attention, to “walk
wary” in the fullest sense of the word. I realized that in the last year I
had come to the place Solomon described in Gene Peterson’s paraphrase of Ecclesiastes
13.5:
Hikes to the mountains are a thing of the
past.
Even a stroll down the
road has its terrors.
This verse is in the middle of the Preacher’s description of
old age. Growing old too, is vanity, but only when it is lived as if it is the
only thing. The writer finishes this section this way:
Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over.
Life as we know it, precious and beautiful,
ends.
The body is put back in the same ground it
came from.
The spirit returns to
God, who first breathed it. 12.6-7
The story has
two morals: First, if you take your
socks off and your feet feel like the are still wearing them, you would do well
to give some serious thought to this. If you are one of the estimated 20
million Americans with some form of
peripheral neuropathy, there are things you should know about. In most
cases damaged nerves do not regenerate, but there are many things that can be
done to manage it and cope with it. It is seldom fatal unless it causes you to
Fall in front
of a bus.
Second, All of modern science and technology
may make aging a little easier, but it cannot prevent it—the physical destiny
of the outer man is, sooner or later,
a return to the dust. But those who have taken Solomon’s advice in the first
sentence seriously;
Honor and enjoy your Creator while you’re
still young,
Before the years take their toll and your
vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years
keep you close to the fire.
will find
that spiritual resources of their inner man, are more than sufficient to
weather the inevitable storms of aging with praise on their lips and
thanksgiving in their hearts.
These “sunset
years, no matter how cloudy, cold, stormy, or painful give living proof daily to
every child of the King that the Word the Apostle Paul gave to the believers at
Corinth is true:
And God is able to make
all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all
times, you may abound in every good work. 2 COR. 9.8 ESV
What I have
said here is not sufficient for a diagnosis or a plan for treatment. It is a
complex problem that takes trained professionals. I had professionals for the
diagnosis. But it was not troubling me much and came away with the impression
that eventually I would need “some stretching exercises. When I finally got
around to a physical therapist, I found that I had it only partly right. The
therapist started me on 4 exercises--one to stretch the things in my legs that
need loosening up, and three to build up my glutes. In a word, my problem is
25% in my legs and 75% in my glutes.
Jerry Sweers
GROWING OLD AIN’T
FOR SISSIES
Sailing directions for Pilgrims of the Heart.
Remembrances, reflections and rants
of an endangered species;
Curmudgensis Americanus
Bibliophilius
site: crmudgeon.blogspot.com
11/22/2015
WHAT'S IN A NAME
GOAFS II: #161
WHAT’S IN A
NAME
NOVEMBER 22,
2015
For a brief time
ISIS was the accepted name for this
pack of the homicidal sons of Allah. The
media, the Western world and the White House were all on the same page. Very
soon the President declared “that for clarity and consistency” this
administration would use a new set of letters, exclusively and without
exception—ISIL.
Do you know what ISIL stands for? Most people don’t. It stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. “Levant” is a historical term for the geographic area in the Middle
East that originally included a kidney shaped area centered on Israel.
Wikipedia describes it this way:
“The Levant is a geographical term that refers
to a large area in Southwest Asia, south of the Taurus Mountains,
bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Desert
in the south, and Mesopotamia in the east. It stretches 400 miles north to south from the
Taurus Mountains to the Sinai desert, and 70 to 100 miles east to west between
the sea and the Arabian desert.[1] The term is also sometimes (currently) used to refer to modern events
or states in the region immediately bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
(The
approximate population of the modern Levant is over 44,000,000.)
Selah! Stop and think it over. Why would President Obama want
to make this change? Several reasons come to mind:
·
By simply changing one letter in the name, Obama
legitimizes the Jihadis’ right to add a very large area of land and a very
large number of people to what they can claim as part of the Caliphate they are
building.
·
In the same swipe of his famous pen, he typographically
removes Syria, an embarrassment he hates to talk about—a failure that is
characteristic of the mess he has made in the Middle East.
·
With the same swipe of his pen, he sticks a finger
Israel’s eye and implies that Israel’s right to exist is’ at best ‘temporary
political necessity. When Obama says “I’ve got your back”, it is not a an encouragement
but a warning.
·
Finally, every time he makes a public pronouncement on
these things standing in front of his golden Muslim-Friendly harem curtain, the
“L” assures all Muslims that he loves Islam above all else.
Finally, a caveat. There is another side to this all about
which I need to do lot thinking before I speak again on radical Islam. In 2014
there were 2.08 billion Muslims in the world. Islam at present is the fastest
growing religion in the world.
A solid estimate of the total number of radical Muslims in
this vast throng is hard to come by, probably 5% is a fair guess. Whatever the
actual number, by now it is clear that even one of these radicals is capable of
doing great damage to many innocent human beings.
There is much confusion today for lack of making two critical
distinctions. First there is definitely a clear line between the 5% radical
Muslims and the 95% moderate Muslims. The second is that civilized nations have
a responsibility to protect its citizens from the violence of barbarians.
Biblically, we are told to love our neighbor and our enemy.
How are we to think about our duty as citizens to support the government that
is God-ordained to protect us as a group and also love our neighbor as an
individual, our neighbor who is an enemy, vowing to kill us?
I don’t have an answer yet but I think this is a real question
that deserves serious thought.
Jerry Sweers
GROWING OLD AIN’T
FOR SISSIES
Sailing directions for Pilgrims of the Heart.
Remembrances, reflections and rants
of an endangered species;
Curmudgensis Americanus
Bibliophilius
site: crmudgeon.blogspot.com
11/15/2015
THE BARBARIANS INSIDE THE GATES
GOAFS II: #160
THE BARBARIANS
INSIDE THE GATES
NOVEMBER 15,
2015
“Today the Islamic State has committed an act of war against
France.” Francois Hollande, President of France
Yesterday day
a well-planned attack was carried out by a group of well-armed, well-trained
Jihadists in the center of Paris. The shooting started almost simultaneously at
6 different locations, where large groups of people were gathered. When the
first explosion was heard outside the country’s main sports stadium, President
Hollande was quickly spirited away from the soccer match to safety.
Less than two
hours later He addressed the nation. He began his speech with the statement
above—the kind of simple, concise truth I cannot imagine coming from the current
President of the United States in similar circumstances. Hollande’s speech was
brief, passionate, and truthful. I suspect the “Young Messiah of Hope and
Change” would swallow his tongue before making such a speech.
Today, the
situation is still chaotic and confused:
--The borders
of the country were closed last evening
--The City of
Paris is sealed, no one gets in or out. There were 1500 military there quickly
and by the next day, thousands more.
--So far
there are 129 dead Parisians, over 350 wounded.
--There 6
dead suicide bombers and an unknown number of other fighters so far unaccounted
for.
--Isis in
Syria has claimed responsibility and said there were only 6 attackers. It is
believed that there were more who have ditched their weapons, changed their
clothes and blended back into the general population (Estimated 5,000,000\7.5%,
the largest Muslim community in Europe) or crossed the borders before they were
closed. Finding them will be like looking for needles in a haystack, but the
search has already snared numerous accomplices, in and outside France.
CAUTION
This is the
first time I have forwarded something to you that is not entirely true. This
speech, said to be given to the Russian Duma, is judged false by Snopes.com, a
site dedicated to protecting progressive liberal ideology whenever it is
remotely defensible. Snopes does sometimes attempt to project an appearance of
objectivity if the thing they debunk is not totally false. If there is
some clear evidence for the truth, they may mention it in a footnote.
The speech
allegedly made to the Russian Duma on August 13, 2015, was not then, and was
probably never, given anywhere in the exact form presented below. It is a
composite of several speeches given by Putin in the last three years at several
government gatherings.
Here is one
of the footnotes Snopes offers in the interests of fairness and balance:
“President Putin did,
during his introductory remarks to a meeting of the Board of the
Federal Migration Service in January 2012, speak words somewhat similar to the
sentiments expressed in the item reproduced above, but with much more moderated
language and a much less inflammatory tone:”
“On the whole, the adaptation of guest workers
is a separate and comprehensive issue. We must create the conditions for
immigrants to normally integrate into our society, learn Russian and, of
course, respect our culture and traditions and abide by Russian law. In this
regard, I believe that the decision to make learning the Russian language
compulsory and administer exams is well grounded. To do so, we will need to
carry out major organizational work and introduce corresponding legislative
amendments. I'd like to ask the Federal Migration Service and other departments
to submit specific proposals to the government. These proposals should be
openly discussed with ethnic minorities as well as public and religious
organizations. This should be mandatory for all guest workers regardless of
their future employment.”
So I send
this to you not because Vlad, the Impaler, is a good role model for other world
leaders but because this presentation of what are essentially his attitudes and
intentions about the dangers of militant Islam is the most accurate, concise
statement of what should be at the heart of the foreign policy of any 21st
century civilized nation. Here is the introduction to the composite speech in
question.
No wonder he was selected by Forbes as the most powerful
person in the world. This is one time our elected leaders should pay
attention to the advice of Vladimir Putin. I would suggest that not only our
leaders but leaders in every corner of the civilized world should pay attention
to this advice.
Aggressive, radical Islam is seeking world-wide domination.
It is a sad day when a Communist Leader makes more sense
than our leaders here in the U.S.A. There are many things about Vladimir
Putin to criticize, but in spelling out the true nature of radical Islam and
taking active steps to counter it, Putin hits the nail squarely on the head.
Here is the speech.
XXX
SHORTEST SPEECH EVER
By Vladimir Putin
On August 04,
2013, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, addressed the Duma, (Russian
Parliament), and gave a speech about the tensions with minorities in Russia. He
began directly addressing the Muslims in Russia:
In Russia, live like Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if
it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, it should speak Russian,
and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law, and want to live
the life of Muslim's then we advise them to go to those places where that's the
state law.
Russia does not need Muslim minorities. Minorities need
Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our
laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination'. We
will not tolerate disrespect of our Russian culture.
We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland
and France, if we are to survive as a nation. The Muslims are taking over those
countries and they will not take over Russia.
The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the
lack of culture or the primitive ways of Sharia Law and Muslims.
When this honorable legislative body thinks of creating new
laws, it should have in mind the Russian national interests first, observing
that the Muslims Minorities Are Not Russians.”
The
politicians in the Duma gave Putin a five minute standing ovation.
XXX
This has
gotten long so I will finish with a brief editorial comment.
President
Obama has hauled out his stock response to the latest Jihadi outrage—a
passionless promise to stand with the target of the latest assault on Western
Civilization and bring the perpetrators to justice. If it were left to him, the
most he would do would be send a token number of additional policemen to deal
with a “problem of law and order” and cross his fingers that he will be out of
the White House before any further problems that cannot be contained might
arise.
But there is
a fly in the ointment this time. It looks like France, the nation “we had to
save from Hitler”, is going to get serious in recognizing the global threat of
militant Islam and move into the gaping leadership vacuum created by the AWOL
leader of the “most powerful nation on earth” who insists on treating the
homicidal sons of Allah like naughty, somewhat embarrassing shirt-tail cousins.
Right now, President Obama’s one fear is that the Global Warming Meetings to be
held in France next month might canceled and he will be pressed to do something
that might make a real difference in the world with the extra time he might
have on his hands.
I believe the
next Paris will be in the United States, within the next year. It very likely
can not be prevented, even if Obama repents, makes a U-turn and begins to think
a lot more like Vladimir Putin, the die has been cast by almost two terms of incompetent
progressive liberal foreign policy.
Jerry Sweers
GROWING OLD
AIN’T FOR SISSIES
Sailing directions for Pilgrims of the Heart.
Remembrances, reflections and rants
of an endangered species;
Curmudgensis Americanus
Bibliophilius
site: crmudgeon.blogspot.com
