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

JB>  Buggered that a kid has to experience that kinda ugly,
JB>  but it's what they do after that counts.


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



JB>  A classmate (GOOD guitar player!) died after years
JB>  of remission. I was saddened to hear he was using
JB>  guilt trips on his final days, but *that* was second
JB>  hand news


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



JB>  I have no idea what *I* might become in his situation.


          Uh-huh.  I've seen various people who swore they would never do
xxx or yyy change their minds when they found themselves in similar
circumstances.  :-)



[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.


          Oh, I like his attitude!  I consider it well worth emulating too.  :-)



JB>  My sister (I think I mentioned?) needed an aneurism
JB>  worked on, and she was worried about her appearance
JB>  with the chrome-dome. She looked fine, and I told her
JB>  so. After the expected retort, I pulled the Sinade
JB>  card, and I pulled it a couple of more times after
JB>  that one. She now wears a Sharon Osborn, and never
JB>  looked better! If nothing else, she got a great doo
JB>  out-a the deal. <-;


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



JB>  I'm sure there is some self determination in a persons
JB>  recovery, but there is a point when nothing short of
JB>  super-power is going to get a person going again. There
JB>  *is* a limit to everything. (Trying to get metaphysical.)


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




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+