Shawshank Re:Dementia (Day 5)

Posted 3/17/20

Happy St. Patty’s day, all!!!!

Another day without seeing mom. 🙁 Another day “in the hole”. Most folks could use an iPad or an Alexa device, but I doubt mom would get the point in the state she is in. She is more of a hand-holder and a Andy Griffith with me watcher. Counting the days when we can hang out again. Stinkin’ virus!

On with a brief quote from Shawshank:

“Andy Dufresne: ‘That’s the beauty of music. They can’t get that from you…haven’t you ever felt that way about music?’
Red: ‘I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn’t make much sense in here.’
Andy: ‘Here’s where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don’t forget.’
Red: ‘Forget?’
Andy: ‘Forget that…there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside…that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.’
Red: ‘What’re you talking about?’
Andy: ‘Hope.” Red: “Hope. Let me tell you something. Hope is a dangerous thing”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/101459-andy-dufresne-that-s-the-beauty-of-music-they-can-t-get

Music is truly unique. This savage, yet cowardly disease is powerless to take the music from you. I firmly believe that. I have seen even later stage patients than mom smile at music. Even if they couldn’t sing verbally, they sang in their heart and their soul. We were born with this symbiotic relationship with music. Show me someone who says they hate all music and I will show you someone who still knows that “This is a story, of a man named Brady” and taps their toes to the Gilligan’s Island theme song or snaps their fingers at the Addams Family Theme song. You can run from your innate love of music, but it will escape.

So does music bring hope…and is hope such a dangerous thing? For a couple of guys, music brought hope…or hope brought music. For Andy and Red? Sure…music was an important sub-theme in the movie. However, I have my sights set on prisoners, Paul and Silas, as well.

Here is their story from Acts 16:

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

¹⁹ But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. ²⁰ And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. ²¹ They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” ²² The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. ²³ And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. ²⁴ Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, ²⁶ and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. ²⁷ When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” ²⁹ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ³¹ And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. ³⁴ Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

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Is hope a dangerous thing? I mean, there is a 100% mortality rate on dementia. They are locked in that evil cell and the jailer has fed the key to a stinkin’ alligator. There are no grounds for hope, are there?? Paul and Silas thought so. They thought there was also hope for the glory of God… and they sang like non-jail-birds until they were delivered!

I hum these little words to you in response to our hopeless state:

• We are all 100% terminal. We may just last longer then them. None of us are gettin’ out of hear alive…
• God can heal them physically. He can prompt a cure.
• Our real healing…the only one that truly matters, is what the jailer found. That spiritual healing lasts forever.

I hope mom gets healed. I pray for it. I yearn for her and the Sweet 17 and your folks to waltz out of their cells and sign praises to the One who healed and freed them. Will it happen? No clue…but I can and do hope it will. However, regardless how her story ends, I will praise the Lord for His goodness and His love in the many decades we have had with mom. It won’t be easy, but it is the hope of my faith…my only hope. And maybe, just maybe, this hope is winsome and rubs off on a few more people and they get some Christian hope as well? Hmmmm… maybe hope is a dangerous thing after all…to the enemy.

#EndALZ

Update: Only phone updates. All is OK so far. Still considering a window visit, perhaps Saturday. 🙁

Diet Update: I lost an incredible 6.4 this week for 37.4 total. Lots of working out to beat back the stress eating. Only around 100 pounds to go. 🙂