Posted 3/9/22
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 ESV
Hi all! I hope your week and going swimmingly! 🙂 Mine is going…that counts for something. 🙂
I was reading, again, that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan and their (Facebook/Meta) foundation are donating $3 Billion dollars in seed money, essentially, ” to cure all disease by the end of the 21st Century.” (LINK). $3B is indeed a lot of money! “All diseases” are a lot of diseases! I realize we throw around big dollars all the time and that $3B only “goes along so far” in some folks’ minds, but don’t think like that. Instead, rejoice that this group is trying to help…and we can leave it at that. But this revelation reminder reminded me again of something that we lose track of: just how extensive Alzheimer’s is, and, to an extent, why.
Age is the single most important risk factor of being diagnosed with dementia. While it is possible for a teen or younger to get the disease, the odds are waaaaaay smaller than someone who is, say, 65. A 65 year old is much less likely than at 75. 75 than 85. 85 than 100…and so on. Better said by the Alzheimer’s Association, “Most individuals with the disease are 65 and older. After age 65, the risk of Alzheimer’s doubles every five years. After age 85, the risk reaches nearly one-third.”
Zuckerberg and Chan are, presumably, shooting to extend the life of humanity indefinitely. There are two roadblocks, for now: one medical and one spiritual. For this platform I will focus on the medical all the while knowing the spiritually truly matters more, in my humble opinion. (Note: Job 14:1-6 speak directly at our attempts to live forever and 1 Cor 15 (among others) expresses God’s plan quite nicely). Medically, though, we have several huge problems with living forever. However, one, at least for now, stands out: Dementia. The older we live. as mentioned before, the more of a chance of the dementia that may have started its pathology as far back as 20-30 years before will start manifesting itself as symptoms. Dementia also causes more falls, more accidents, and more challenges in daily living/quality of life. So, to me, it should be the target of our medical attention. One more bonus: if you cure dementia, there is a pretty good chance that ALS, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s will follow a similar path to a cure/better treatments. Killing four birds with one stone?!?! THAT is how you start “curing all diseases”.
So, do I think this ambitious power couple will succeed? Nope. But I do admire their attempt. If anyone knows them, please have them drop a few billion into my LONGEST DAY- RUNNIN’ TIL I’M PURPLE event in June. I would feel even better about running knowing there were S,000,000,000 many zeros in the ole fund. If you could, please toss a few coins into the event too. 🙂 I will be donating more soon too. 🙂 I will be selling t-shirts again this year and will do further fundraising. 🙂 We are a popsicle stand what needs to be a Chick-Fil-A-sized chain, but we are mighty nevertheless. 🙂 We will beat this thing…
#EndALZ
Note: Today is my guinea pig post to see if the new Newsletter sending platform works. I hope you get this in your inbox too. Please forward my website to people. There are millions that need help and, while I am not a billionaire tech mogul, I do care very much.
Mom update: She is sleeping nearly 23 hours a day. I sat with her yesterday for about an hour before supper. She is seemingly pain-free (she doesn’t grimace), she smiles occasionally, and every once in a while, especially when eating, she peeks at who is near, then back to sleep she goes. i, frankly, don’t blame her a bit. 🙂 It is a terrible situation, but when compared to 2-5 years ago, it is much easier for her and for us. Heaven awaits… Another of the earlier Sweet 17 members sat in the table next to us. She used to talk a lot and in a reasonably cogent way. Dementia has broken her speech into word pebbles now and it is very hard to listen to. (Easy to hear, hard to accept.)
One last thought: The title of this piece was inspired by a book that was written by John Owen in 1648. Here is a Smile.Amazon link if you would like to read it and here is a website that talks about it and lets you read it on eBook as well. It is an amazing work explaining the significance of Christ’s accomplishment on the cross and would be useful as we head toward Easter… It is Puritan exhaustively. It is, unapologetically, from the reformed mindset, as am I (although I love and respect many, many who disagree). It is deep water, for sure…bring your theological flippers and snorkel…you will need them. But it is a great read.
LOL…one really LAST thought: Today was my 99th day in a row of either running a 5k or more or doing at least 30 minutes of some other cardio work. I still need to lose a decent amount of weight, but I get closer every week to my goal and being ready to jump some trail running sharks this June.
