[Magdalen] Me, again.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I think that, while we may  well cringe at the way others respond, we all
respond to terrible things in our own heart-felt way.  My defense mechanism
is humor.  I actually have senior moments that make me fear for my mind til
I remember that so long as you are worried about your mind, chances are
you've still got it.
I remember that just a short time before her death, Mom celebrated her 99th
birthday with family in a fine restaurant. Nobody cared that Mom was
wearing a diaper under her dress.  She had referred to me as her nephew at
one point recently, but I heard the love in her comment, and let the rest
go.
My own hope is that when it comes time for someone else to wipe my behind
for me, that I won't know about it.
Just the other day, my sweetie and I were shopping and on our way back to
the car with a big paper bag full of stuff. It somehow got loose in my hand
and I lost grip on one of the two loops and the bag immediately ripped open
and our stuff fell on the floor of the mall. Immediately a bunch of folks
rushed over to us, "Are you alright? Do you need another shopping bag?
etc." It was nice to have people so solicitous, but also it was a wake up
call.  When we got home, I said to my wife that we dropped some things on
the floor and everyone wanted to help us out. "Dear, we are OLD!" We had a
good laugh.  But things happen to remind us that we are all dying -- yes,
we are all actually , really, dying.
But there's no use getting sad about what might come, even though we know
the ending of the play. We need to savor the joys of today, letting
tomorrow take care of itself.

A man was condemned to die, and he told the king, "Sirrah, if you will let
me live, I will teach your horse to talk!"
The king was so impressed by this that he gave the man two years to
accomplish this.
"Why did you do that? You know you can't teach this horse to talk!"
exclaimed his friend a little later.
"Well, you see, two years is a long time. The king may die.  Or I may die."
 And he paused. "Or the horse may talk."

http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/a20051


James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sun, Apr 24, 2016 at 2:43 PM, Jon Egger <revegger at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have been diagnosed with early-onset dementia.
> I live to write; I am sad.
> Please pray for me.
>
> Grace and peace,
> brud
>