Hi, James!  Recently you wrote, under a different subject heading:

JB>  The comedian that just wrapped up his set on the TV,
JB>  suggested that Alzheimer's disease was, "God's gift
JB>  to the aged." I'll apologize now, as the performer
JB>  did for a total lack of tact.


          Okay... so it's satire.  First you get the audience's attention,
then you hit the nail on the head.  I've done it in class & at staff
meetings.  :-))



JB>  He said, "One day, you're drawing, 'Oh, I've invented
JB>  the banana.' They *fix* you, and you realize you can't
JB>  walk, and all your friends are dead. Leave them alone!"


          I think I hear what he's saying.  Nora had a great time playing
catch with a friend in his nineties, recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's. 
We'd known this person for many years... and what struck me was how he'd
regained the joie de vivre & spontaneity of childhood.  About all we
heard, from other members of the family, was that he couldn't do xxx or yyy
any more.  But he didn't seem to realize what he couldn't do, and it took
very little to make him happy.  If his affliction could be
"cured" I wonder whose interests would be best served.  ;-)



JB>  I think I mentioned my visit with an Aunt, and my God
JB>  Father who are afflicted, and I'd love nothing more
JB>  than to hear their laughter again, but who am I to say
JB>  they are not "well"?


          I'm not sure you mentioned it here... or if you did, I don't
remember the details... but essentially I feel as you do.  Their situation
may be harder for others in various ways than for them... and as long as
they seem reasonably content, the most appropriate action may be to go with
the flow.  AFAIK neither of my parents had Alzheimer's.  They had a series
of strokes or something which (as modern technology demonstrated) left
empty spaces in their brains.  I could see what was missing when they were
called upon to use it.  They weren't always aware of it themselves.  In her
last few years my mother often spent inordinate amounts of time memorizing
the day's date, though, because she still had enough marbles left to
realize she might be tested on such things.  And then there was Dallas's
grandfather, frustrated because he could no longer make sense of brief
items in the newspaper when he knew he was once able to do a lot more.

          Alzheimer's sounds quite scary to many people & I suspect the
term is often overused.  But if people don't know what's missing that may
be a blessing
... and in my experience, being "normal" is not all it's cracked
up to be.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+