Posted 7-2-19
Disclaimer: I am not sure that this is the article for you if you like my column for its funny banter and oddball analogies. Sometimes I just write selfishly to work through issues in my own sadness. I hope this inspires you to look forward in the face of temptation to look back. You have been warned. 😉
You’re still here! Thank you. 🙂 Off we go!
The 1937 John Steinbeck novel Of Mice and Men made a huge impression on me in junior high when I first perused its profound pages. Here is a YouTube copy of an old version of this gem. This story of two migrant workers in a very challenging time in history was full of great characters and it is a favorite despite its sadness. Maybe it was the fact that I am (physically and, some days, intellectually) a little like Lennie and, as a dreamer and a protector/dad figure, a little like George? Lennie was a very large, physically powerful fellow who had a very low IQ while George was far smaller but protected the innocent Lennie with sometimes “tough love”. For 20-somethings, think Pinky and the Brain while 40-somethings might think of the Abominable Snowman and Daffy Duck for a visual. Perhaps the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers can think of Laurel and Hardy? This larger/smaller twosome troupe has been used throughout the arts throughout history.
So, George, even though he was much smaller, took care of Lennie as they wandered from job-to-job. Lennie, a tender, peaceful man, had a flaw: He loved a little too hard and clumsily. He would love and pet his pets too hard and end up accidentally killing them. George knew this would likely be Lennie’s downfall if ever left to himself and he spent his life dreaming of the two of them living peacefully away from potential pitfalls on a farm away from the world where they would “live off of the fat of the land” and raise rabbits for Lennie to learn to pet. I won’t spoil the end, but one hopes metaphorically/eternally that it all worked out for the two as George “protected” Lennie from those who would hurt him.
When I was in my early teens, we had a beautiful glimpse of a horrible natural reality that life is truly like a circle. I discovered a colony of rabbits living under a small, protruded root below one of the large trees in our back yard. I actually discovered them while mowing (this isn’t the horrific part, fortunately). I was mowing along, minding my own business, probably singing to some 80’s hair band in my Walkman, when I mowed right over this little nest of bunnies. While I am sure the scene was scary to mini-Bugs and the rest of his siblings, they all were fine as their hole was just deep enough to avoid the death blade. I immediately ran in to get mom, as I was (and am still, sadly) wont to do when any issue relating to animals comes up as she is the animal whisperer. The bunnies, as it turned out, were fine…but they were deserted by their momma and needed some food, so we started delivering them grub at their root abode. They seemed to be thriving until they proved too tasty for a local tom cat, much to our horror.
Besides having Peter Rabbit as a primary character, what do these two stories have in common: Our lifelong longing for peace and the absence of hardship in the face of anything but. Please know, I cling hard to my Christian faith. I require it for daily living. It is truly the air I breath in times of the world’s brown smog. Peace in the world is so fleeting, whether as a young bunny rescuer or a 47 year old dad trying to help his mom fight off the inevitable by telling her daily how it will be someday when we are all in heaven.
I truly believe that most of Christendom (including me in my early days in the faith) gives God credit for the “good” stuff and blames the “bad” on the devil. Please join me in remembering that God is Sovereign even over the bad things. There is nothing the devil can do that God cannot undo or stop (including our disease topic). These two real figures are not even close to equals and someday, some sweet day, the devil will be finished off, but only after God’s purposes for this world are over. Will that sweet day with the rabbits happen today? 10,000 years from now? Who knows…it is His prerogative, not mine. But hear this: God has a plan through even Alzheimer’s/Dementia and He is working it out. It doesn’t make null the million promises in the Bible, it highlights them like a diamond with a black felt backdrop.
So, hold fast, fellow believers! These times are hard, but He is in charge and will take us to a place of peace after this light momentary struggle. Oh the peace that will flow there!
“So how will it be George? Tell me about the Rabbits again!” It will be wonderful! Just wonderful!
#EndALZ
Update on mom: Mom has hit a streak of super sleepiness. Almost unresponsive at 5pm. She had a mild temperature yesterday although her chart said otherwise. This morning she seemed to be better, so we will hope that illness is passing by.
So many things we will never understand on this side, but you are right, God does have a plan through it all and we will understand by and by, or maybe it won’t matter why when we get to heaven.
Appreciate all your gifted writing and analogies.
Your mom and all your family continue in our prayers.
May God give you strength, wisdom, love and peace as you go through this valley.🙏
Thank you 🙂
As always, my prayers. Love to you and your family.
Thank you so much!