Posted 1/14/22
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. –John 1:14 (In a bit of a twist to uninformed English-speaking readers, the Word, with a capital W, is Jesus Christ and we just celebrated when He took on flesh on December 25th.)
I love a good twist ending, don’t you? A few of my favorite examples:
- Psycho
- The 6th Sense
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Split
- Soylent Green (Set in 2022, by the way…)
- Seven
- Every Sherlock (BBC) episode
- Every Black Mirror episode
What are your favorites?
What makes a twist ending so twisted is the bizarre combination of both being right under your nose and you NOT seeing it. Of course, we all know “that guy”, who claims to know/expect the twist ending. We also know the savage soul that should be beaten with a whiffle bat for spoiling the twist. I had that guy sitting in front of me when I watched The 6th Sense at the movie theater the first time. I should have flipped the back of his ear really hard for that one…
I was hoping for a VSauce on the topic, but this will have to do because, to me, it does dance around the periphery of the twist:
In the twist, we all know that things aren’t as they should be and that things really ARE, all at the same time because we suddenly have the magnificent benefit of hindsight.
Dementia really messes with this concept. Everything that is A is really B, or maybe a….other than when it is A when you thought it was B. The meandering path mom has taken the last 4 of her now 13ish year run of having dementia has left me in a pretzelled mess. The more I think I know, the less I really know.
Sometimes it even seems like researchers, tasked with untwisting this twist are spellbound as well. I watch at least 10 hours of webinars on dementia every week, nearly all from ADRC and/or Alzheimer’s Association sources. I am an Alzheimer’s wonk the same way your single uncle Eddie is a model train wonk or your grandpa is a weather chaser wonk. I consume the information ravenously because I WANT to not sound stupid and to be able to help people, including mom. But, the twist: the information provided by clearly some of the most ingenious folks around is often contradictory at best and wrong at worst. In an ultimate twist, when I ask questions in forums, occasionally I get a “I have no clue” kind of answer. That makes the armchair researcher in me conflicted…at once impressed with their humility and sad that we are not as close as I expected. Wanting something to be so doesn’t MAKE it so, regardless how much the TV late night preacher promises you in exchange for your “seed” money. (Don’t give money to these Cretans. Save your money for your local church, which likely needs it more than the talking head on TV needs a new jet.)
So this is my hope, in light of my love of the twist ending: something simple can fix it. Kill it in its tracks. I am in 2 longitudinal studies right now and considering a third that looks at hundreds of things to look for correlations. See, if you have, say, a million people who have a disease and are willing to share many, many details of their lives ranging from health histories to diets/exercise regimens to sleep patterns to stress and lifestyle areas and stick them in a great big spreadsheet…then you sort for similar answers, you can find twists a bit deeper in life’s movie that was there all along had all of the other stuff not been in the way. But, in order to root out these twists, we need LOTS of data….and we really don’t get nearly enough, especially among non-whites and non-men. I empathize with those in these categories because history has been terrible in many, many cases where secular science has abused their trust. However, we need the data so that we don’t miss the correlations from your story and end up going on a goose chase based on a too narrow look. I feel confident that these abuses of trust have become so damning, rightfully so, that they are much less likely to happen again, especially in large-scale settings like a longitudinal study. Everyone, including the members of your group, will benefit as well.
Praying for a twist ending to this mess with me?
#EndALZ
#RunninTilImPurple
Update: I have visited mom several times this week. She has been more aware than normal, which is a pleasant twist indeed considering she has been on hospice for a couple of years now, has had Covid at least once, and that we were called in to be with her in the worse (previously) part of the Covid plague that killed over 40 of the 108 in her nursing home to say goodbyes…well over a year ago. That was a twist indeed! Her poor friend, Mr. D, is falling constantly and wobbling around out of his chair when he isn’t. I hate this sooooo much for him. We need a cure, and now.
Couple of last things:
If you want to join a study of any kind, here is a GREAT place to look at them: Trial Match There are other private companies that pay big money for subjects. We have one locally. I am NOT recommending them as I don’t have a clue how safe/legit they are. I do feel very good about Trial Match, though, and recommend it wholeheartedly.
Last little nugget: My Runnin’ Til I’m Purple fundraiser has started for 2022. Here is the link: LINK If you could donate some of your hard-earned coin, I would deeply appreciate it much, much more than you know. I am not a man of means. I can’t pay researchers. I am not super brainy. I can’t dissect a hippocampus. In fact, the thought makes me yak in my throat a little. I am not pretty enough to be on TV a lot (although I find myself there a lot for this cause). But I can ask friends for help. We can beat this disease. We just have to find the twist that has tangled the lives of tens of millions. Here is my run info and donation link: LINK…and here is another copy: LINK
Thank you all!
Oh…one more thing. The support group Zoom is next Tuesday night from 5-6+pm CST. If you would like the link, let me know. 🙂 mark.applegate@senioragemo.org or 417-955-2513 (text or call)
You know what would be a nifty twist? To wake up from this 13+ year dream and laugh about what a long one it was…