This is a scene from the HBO production of "Wit". A very moving, though painful film to watch. Still it speaks to what so many of us have experienced. A loved one nearing death. Struggling with pain, madness, the works.
Many of us have been care givers to both family, and friends. To you comrade givers there's nothing I can say that you don't already know. No doubt many of you were braver, and wiser than I, but we all did what we had to at the best of our ability.
Bless you all.
...death, thou shall die.
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I posted the above on another of my blogs over a year ago.
My eldest cousin, due to a stroke, and a cascading dementia, passed away in the spring of 2008. My cousin Tempy's leaving was a 'hard' death as you will surmise from the above content.
Apparently so to with my friend Toni, Toni Short a few days ago. She was in more distress than any of us knew.
She was a proud, and self assured person.
I'm not surprised she kept mostly silent about her condition. We knew she was ill, but were under the impression that she was managing okay.
When I see her again I'll make a point of asking her to unwind a bit on the big stuff.
Well okay she would reach out sometimes. 'But ya know.
Anyway now to carry on with our lives. Um, you should know I'm 'going' to be selfish, resentful, angry, less than rational, and generally difficult for the rest of the season.
I really wish I could come up with some of my funny, ironic bullshit, but I can't. 'just can't. 'too nuts right now.
On the 'up' side Obama seems to be trying to do the right thing again.
Maybe his family told him to help all the poor, and sick people that voted for him. Anyway the far rightwing is openly calling for his *assassination, and the far left is calling him a turncoat.
Okay full disclosure, yeah his slowness to act on 'anything' pissed me off too.
So I guess annoying old commies,(like me), enraging assorted corporate exploiters, and driving nazi race nuts to foam at the mouth means he's doing something right.
*Don't know if you overseas readers are hip to this, but yeah it's bad.
There's a whole demographic running around loose that wants to see the President of the United States murdered.
It reminds me of when I was a boy. The ugly hatred for John F. Kennedy just before Dallas. It was the same sort of people as hate Obama wanting him dead too.
...the more things change.
4 comments:
I'm sorry Toni Short has passed. "Person to Person" was one of the overnites that I would struggle to stay awake and listen to. Toni talked about real life, her life, ours. We seemed to have so much in common. Job issues, health concerns, finances and now she's gone like so many others I knew and loved. This doesn't get any easier does it?
She must have been extraordinarily strong. I'm certain I could never remain silent about suffering like that.
I didn't know that about the wingnuts calling for Obama's death, probably because I don't listen to wingnut radio and try not pay any attention to them that I don't have to. I find it's better for my tranquility of mind.
When Kennedy was assassinated the economy was extremely strong and the country, despite being fucked up in many ways (like racism and other injustice), had a relatively sound social fabric and great confidence in itself. We are far indeed from being in that position now. If Obama were assassinated, I suspect all hell would break loose. I wouldn't even bet on the country remaining politically unified. With so many people's hopes tied to this guy, and an incipient depression coming on, I think we'd get an eruption of bitterness and violence that would make the Watts riots look like a debutante cotillion ball. So let's hope it doesn't happen.
This is a different country from 1963, but I am not sure how those differences would play out. In 1963, the country was run by World War II veterans, many of whom had learned racism as kids from their families. However, they had seen the racism of the Nazis and Imperial Japan, so at key moments many who maintained a "racist" persona in their family stood aside to allow real Civil Rights progress. It was quiet and subtle. Of course, there were many WW2 vets among the politicians who played active progressive roles back then even though they wore the tags of Republican and Democrat. Forty-four years after Congress and L.B.J. enacted Medicare, we have only begun to legislate the second installment! So -- how will the country react if some criminally selfish people try to obstruct or destroy the peaceful changes that are logical evolutions of all the tragedy and suffering of the 20th Century. I would ask God to help us, but then, I'm a Unitarian, and we never expect divine intervention. As for the "A" word; the J.F.K. murder was so traumatic to me that I dropped out of college and reality for a couple of years. During that time I was in the alternate America, several people argued that it was time "to kill for peace." Would an assassination now precipitate a wave of violence; perhaps an action and reaction as the Sarajevo murders 1914 resulted in World War I? The prospect is frightening.
Re Wingnuts calling for Obama's assassination:
I don't know what's wrong with you Americans. At least you have a President who is worth assassinating, or worth rioting about if someone assassinates him. The best we have to offer in the UK is Gordon Brown. I would offer to smother him with a pillow if I thought there was a better replacement waiting in the wings. And if I did smother him, what would happen? The whole nation would go into mourning and there would be tearful demonstrations in Trafalgar Square.
Please, give me some serious violence and hate.
And meanwhile, give Obama a chance. And a second and third chance. We know what he's up against. And for him maybe the decisions we find most disappointing are the ones he found hard to swallow too.
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