Posted 6/16/21
There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes,
a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. –Proverbs 6:16-19
(Note: But God only loves, doesn’t He? Nope. He can hate unsinfully too, especially those things that harm who and what He loves. Above is one list.)
Happy Wednesday all! Another day in paradise, eh? 😉 OK, maybe not…but if things were like paradise here we would, as this writer explained, just bungle it up and be unappreciative anyway. Instead we love the good, turn from the bad as best we can, and serve God and man. Such is life…
I have had kind of a theme banging around in my somewhat vacuous head lately that exposes to me (and now to you) just part of the funk that I am in these days. It can be summarized by replacing the WE in the song below with I. Give this piece of musical bliss a listen and meet me on the other side of the box.
Here are the actual words to the Bob the Builder song from Genius.com:
[Chorus]
Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes, we can!
Scoop, Muck and Dizzy, and Roley too
Lofty and Wendy join the crew
Bob and the gang have so much fun
Working together, they get the job done
Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes, we can!
Pilchard and Bird, Travis and Spud
Playing together like good friends should
Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes, we can!
As I mentioned in my Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Group last night, one of my biggest challenges in helping mom (and my uncle, and the other MILLIONS in America alone with dementia) is a sometimes good part of my character: I am a fixer. I am a dad too, often a synonym to some extent. I fix things for a living. I reconcile broken things. That is my nature. Mom and Dad both modelled this to us in our formative years and I guess it stuck. I fix computers by trade. I fix broken systems, processes, and priorities as part of my work. Much like a Sherlock Holmes novel, things do seem to work out with varying levels of intellectual or physical grease applied. That is me…the grease applier. Bacon grease is my favorite…
Sooooo when something breaks, I fix it.
When it breaks bad, I fix it good.
When something stays broken, I fix it harder. (My apologies to my many English teachers for this sentence and many others)
When the broken thing still stays broken, I hit it on the side like an old Zenith (and try not to knock the rabbit ears off it).
When something still doesn’t work? Well…it just does.
But when it doesn’t, I take it personally. I am a fixer, after all. I, sinfully or not, identify that way. That is whom I am. “I yam whom I yam”, says Popeye trying to sound like I use good grammar.
So how do I deal with trying to fix mom, you may ask?
If you did ask, I ask the same question right back at ya. (Sitting on our little virtual counselor couch) That is the biggest challenge I am facing right now. I want to fix mom. I fix things. They generally are fixable and they stay that way, but not mom. And, frankly, it is hard. It makes me sad and question my ability to fix despite the fact that some things, I hear, as simply unfixable. OK…I know some likely things. I do. Here is a partial list:
- My awe-inspiringly ugly toes
- The national debt (and my own student loan debt, a very similar number)
- The unhealthiness of my favorite foods
- The healthiness of foods that I wouldn’t eat unless they were all that is left. (I see you pinto beans.)
- My poor budgeting technique
- My and my wife’s disdain of the reverse side tract of the cassette single of our favorite song as a couple “Groovy Kind of Love”
- The U.S. Government
- The battle for the back seats at a Southern Baptist church
- Robocalls
I am sure there are more… Note: I could come up with a fix for each of these if given the time. But not mom.
Enter scammers, stage left. I just got a mailing forwarded to me this week for a biofeedback cure for dementia! It costs nothing to do and it works! Mom would be fixed. Perfect!!! All I have to do is buy his $40 ebook?!?! I can afford $40 for a cure, right? I can afford thousands of dollars for a famous doctor’s “system” of mostly vitamins, right?
We all want a cure. I probably want it more than many. Aducanumab’s surprise approval shows just how desperately we need some good news. Three prominent members of the drug testing/approval team for Aducanumab have quit over this drug’s approval. This doesn’t mean the drug is bad, it just means that they felt strongly that the drug shouldn’t be approved and resigned when it did. Perhaps they are frustrated fixers too…or perhaps the decision-makers that DID approve it are fellow fixers? I am reserving judgment, but I am still optimistic that the drug will help some folks and it will breed future drugs and someday a cure. BUT….
Is the dad here the fixer, or is it Veruca or is it Willy Wonka? You decide, but she was indeed fixed for the time being…
So in summary of the unsummary-able:
That fact is probably the basis for my run Saturday. If I just try hard enough it will happen.
However, to God a fix is easy. The situation is already resolved in His mind. He ordains the means and ends of everything, and He will do what is right and perfect in this and all situations, so I and you need to trust Him. Like our sin, we cannot fix it ourselves, but He even fixed that for believers on the cross. Satisfying? To my soul, yes. To my heart, yes. To the rest of me…not enough…but I am working on it.
Can I fix it? Nope. Can WE fix it? Nope. Can Pilchard, Bird, Travis or even the mighty Spud fix it? Not a tater’s chance in my kitchen. But we never stop trying. We can/should do like Bob and assemble our team and fight to fix it…and that is what we shall do. “Playing together like good friends should”. Keep fighting together. Keep praying together. Keep serving together. Keep bearing each other’s burdens. Keep on keeping on and see what His plan is. Trust the Master Builder…He can and will fix this either here…or in eternity to come.
#EndALZ
#TheLongestDay
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