05-06-05  10:42, Ardith Hinton told James Bradley about Pluggin' Along...  3.

 How do, Ardith?

 AH> Hi yet again, James!  This is the last installment in the current
 AH> series: 

I trust you've noticed my spontaneous title liberties?


 AH> Agreed.  Nora often tells me that although such-
 AH> and-such hurts, she is used to pain.  Sad to hear from a 
 AH> teenager.  OTOH, she has a degree of empathy & compassion 
 AH> which I find relatively rare even among adults....  :-)
 
Sometimes, flowers grow through pavement. 

Funny thing, I just told my Dr. that "I can deal with the pain. I'm
used to it." He still felt it was necessary to give me more
anti-convulsants to address the pain signals. 


 JB>  guilt trips on his final days, but *that* was second
 JB>  hand news

 AH> An important distinction, IMHO!  What you 
 AH> apparently heard was how one or more other individuals 
 AH> *interpreted* your classmate's behaviour... but if you or I 
 AH> had been there, we might have interpreted it quite 
 AH> differently.  I've often tried, without much success, to 
 AH> get the concept across to my students & to other adults.  
 AH> Give yourself a gold star for objective reporting....  ;-)
 
Who... ME? 

The source was rather trustworthy, but it's not above the most level headed
person to instill their own bias.


 JB>  I have no idea what *I* might become in his situation.
 
 AH> Uh-huh.  I've seen various people who swore they 
 AH> would never do xxx or yyy change their minds when they 
 AH> found themselves in similar circumstances.  :-)

Ya... It's a tough one to read.


 AH> [re Ronnie Hawkins]
 JB>  Anyway, he replied "I can't criticize what I don't
 JB>  understand. I just doubt I'll ever understand that
 JB>  boy." or something along those lines.

 AH> Oh, I like his attitude!  I consider it well
 AH> worth emulating too.  :-)
 
Considering I was all cock-sure of myself at the time, and *my* opinion
wasn't at all relatable to that orifice people were touting about. In that
moment, in a round about way, Ronnie told me exactly how some opinions can
stink, or can smell like honey.
 
 JB>  looked better! If nothing else, she got a great doo
 JB>  out-a the deal. <-;

 AH> When Nora's hair started growing back & it was 
 AH> about half an inch long all over, she looked as cute as a 
 AH> bug's ear.  Other people were paying a hundred dollars for 
 AH> a chemo cut.  And nowadays I see a lot of chrome-domes as 
 AH> well.  :-)

Sometimes, a flower grows through pavement. <-;
 
 AH> I hear you!  Although I realize how effort & 
 AH> motivation have paid off, in a lot of cases, I'm not 
 AH> suggesting I can work miracles all by myself....  ;-)

On the other side of the coin, maybe you sell yourself short? 

I was just mentioning, if a person receives a hard enough blow to the
noggin, they're gonna see stars. Another blow, with an extra oomph will
send one unconscious. Add another oomph to it, and there's not a darn thing
even the medical community can do for you, but relieve some pressure on the
skull. (At least that's my ignorance on the subject.)

Now, some people recover from those double-oomph blows to the head every
day, and others are KOed by a no-oomph. So I can't agree more that a
persons self determination is going to greatly affect their outcome. But
come the triple-oomph, it's not in our hands any more.


... James

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20

--- Maximus 3.01