Dance Me to the End of Love

Today I bring you a few thoughts on dying written by Dudley Clendinen, a man who has Lou Gehrig's disease (something he affectionately calls "Lou") and not long to live. Here are a few excerpts from his article titled The Good Short Life:

No, thank you. I hate being a drag. I don’t think I’ll stick around for the back half of Lou.

I think it’s important to say that. We obsess in this country about how to eat and dress and drink, about finding a job and a mate. About having sex and children. About how to live. But we don’t talk about how to die. We act as if facing death weren’t one of life’s greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges. Believe me, it is. This is not dull. But we have to be able to see doctors and machines, medical and insurance systems, family and friends and religions as informative — not governing — in order to be free.

And that’s the point. This is not about one particular disease or even about Death. It’s about Life, when you know there’s not much left. That is the weird blessing of Lou. There is no escape, and nothing much to do. It’s liberating.
...
Last month, an old friend brought me a recording of the greatest concert he’d ever heard, Leonard Cohen, live, in London, three years ago. It’s powerful, haunting music, by a poet, composer and singer whose life has been as tough and sinewy and loving as an old tree.

The song that transfixed me, words and music, was “Dance Me to the End of Love.” That’s the way I feel about this time. I’m dancing, spinning around, happy in the last rhythms of the life I love. When the music stops — when I can’t tie my bow tie, tell a funny story, walk my dog, talk with Whitney, kiss someone special, or tap out lines like this — I’ll know that Life is over. It’s time to be gone.

The Day My Heart Went Nova

Not much going on today at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. Ann has been getting chemo all week - number six today. Sunday will be a day of rest and then a brand new immune system will be born on Monday - click the NMO pic on the top of the sidebar for more info.

Also, if you are interested in reading my entry (titled The Day My Heart Went Nova) in the Clarity of Night Fiction Contest you can check it out here. All entries are the writer's interpretation of the image at the left. Hope you are having a great weekend.

Invisible Injuries

This morning I heard a man associated with the Wounded Warrior Project using the term "Invisible Injury". It got me to thinking about how so many wounds are intensely felt but cannot be seen. In a world that fixates on visible wounds it is good to remember the following excerpt from the book, "Surviving and Other Essays."

"What cannot be talked about cannot be put to rest. And if it is not, the wounds will fester from generation to generation."

The book was written by Bruno Bettelheim, a concentration camp survivor who took his pain and became a child psychiatrist. Yet in the end, Mr Bettelheim suffered from depression as he battled the aftermath of his wife's death and the effects of a stroke which impaired his mental abilities and paralyzed part of his body. He was 86 when he committed suicide.

Mr Bettelheim's story is not all that rare - I wish it was. So often wounds that are invisible are ones that are the hardest to heal.. so often healing seems to come for a while and then new wounds surface - even when one knows all the right healing methodologies. For me, the takeaway is our need to develop a compassionate understanding of these kinds of wounds.

Netflix Cashes In

A few years ago my daughter bought me a Netflix subscription for Father's Day. I kept the subscription and have enjoyed getting DVDs in the mail and occasionally view streaming videos - I watched the latest Star Trek video there a few weeks ago.

Yesterday Jessie Becker, Netflix's vice president of marketing, announced that rates are going up again at that juggernaut of all things video. They are splitting their DVD and streaming services and each will cost you $7.99 per month - a total of $15.98 if you have both plans. I read a few of the over one thousand (and counting) comment reactions on Mr Baker's blog post and found this one to be interesting:

Yes, be a good service long enough to run Mom and Pop video stores (and even Blockbuster) into bankruptcy, then once things are looking up, the gloves are off and aimed at the customers.

I had not thought about that aspect of this announcement. I have to admit that the end result here seems to agree with that comment. I know that I have not used my Blockbuster account since I joined Netflix. I guess I am wondering if the new rates have been in the mind of Netflix strategists all along or if they have simply found themselves in a place where they can cash in big time. As for me, I doubt that I will keep the streaming services but I may stay with the DVDs as we generally watch a DVD or two a week.

Do you have a Netflix account? How will you react to this announcement?

Time Quadrants

Have your ever seen this image before? I saw it first in Stephen Covey's class based on his book titled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The idea of this matrix is to live in Quadrant II doing things that are important but not urgent.

I regularly need to be reminded of this matrix. I spend way too much time in Quadrant IV. How about you? Can you relate to any quadrant in particular?

Movies with an Agenda

I am always suspicious of movies that have an agenda to persuade me of something. There have been a lot of movies like that - Michael Moore has made a few of them.. Brokeback Mountain seemed to have an agenda. I am not saying that all such movies are bad.. just saying that I am suspicious of such flicks. The latest movie like that is "The Ledge", a movie that purports to have an atheist hero and a Christian villain. Consider what outspoken atheist and film director Matthew Chapman says about his movie:

"My hope was to make an emotional appeal."

"Really, The Ledge is at the beginning of a movement toward more open discussion of atheism and agnosticism."

"There are a lot of us; we are thinking people; we care about many of the same issues as believers, and yet we are rarely heard and widely hated."

"I hope atheists who are still in the closet will take heart from the film and think. I am not alone."

On the positive side Mr Chapman is open about his intentions. Yet I doubt that many will go into the movie theater knowing of his intentions. Even so I would welcome conversations about the movie. Perhaps I will add it to my Netflix DVD queue. Never know when a sincere atheist will want to talk about it with me. What do you think about such movies?

Media Mafia

How many mafioso characters you can name?

Can you name the actors who played them?

Can you spot the actor who appears twice?

GOP: psychological protest or conservative alternative?

I enjoy reading opinion pieces by conservative journalist David Brooks. Recently he wrote, in a piece titled The Mother of All No-Brainers, about how the GOP is getting tremendous concessions from Democrats in the debt limit talks but feels that factions in the GOP will not allow any kind of deal to go through. He describes it this way:

But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.

He goes on to describe this faction saying that "The members of this movement:"

• do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms.
• do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities.
• talk blandly of default and are willing to stain their nation’s honor.
• have no economic theory worthy of the name.
• have taken a small piece of economic policy and turned it into a sacred fixation.

He ends by observing that "Democrats have stopped making concessions" and are "coming to the conclusion that if the Republicans are fanatics then they better be fanatics, too."
I believe in compromise but feel that idea has sadly lost steam in congress as both parties seem to be controlled by fanatics that are not interested in addressing serious problems.

At least some folks are doing better these days ...

Guess how much money this Viacom CEO made in 2010? Guess it is not surprising since the median payout for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. Average American workers took home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from 2009. After inflation, workers were actually making less.

Character Flaws in the Workplace

Not sure how I found this interesting article titled Ten Things That Can Get You Fired.
Some of the things are common sense yet some are subtler. Here is the list:

1. Get Conveniently Sick
2. Lie on Your Job Application
3. Be Disgusting
4. Stay Anonymous
5. Never Compromise
6. Be Ungrateful
7. Don't Respect the Chain of Command
8. Spend Time With the Complainers, Non-Performers and Gossips
9. Never Take Responsibility When Things Go Wrong
10. Take Credit for Other People's Work

I recommend reading the whole article here. I think they all apply to life in general because these character flaws often affect so much more than our employment. These flaws contribute to the loss of friendships and sometimes even in the demise of marriages.
Ever run across one of these flaws where you work?

235 Years and Counting

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

National Anthem Poll

Saw this poll in Parade magazine today and thought that I might ask you the same question.
I love the "God shed his grace on thee" refrain in that song but think that the current anthem should be retained. What do you think? Should we replace The Star Spangled Banner with America the Beautiful as our anthem?

Journaling John

Many of you know that I have been journaling each day through the words of Christ on my other blog. On Friday I finished Matthew's gospel and yesterday I began writing in a devotional style about the words of Christ in the gospel of John. I invite you to come with me for the ride.

Voyeurism

Yes, the dictionary describes this word as one that is connected with sex. But I am thinking more about the kind of voyeurism where people get their kicks from watching rather than doing. Consider that there are many more people who:

• watch sports than who actually play sports. Even kids soccer games have more adults on the sidelines than the children on the field.
• listen to sermons in church pews than those who actually talk about spiritual matters. Many adhere to the old adage that it is not polite to discuss religion and politics.
• criticize governmental leaders than ones who actually vote. It is a sad fact that voting percentages are often low and less than half of the citizenry elects our leaders.

And in cyberspace there are many more voyeurs than there are folks who actually interact. Even on Facebook there are very few, percentage wise, that actually post anything. There is just something safe about being a voyeur. Why do you think that is?