The National news reported last night that Walter Gretzky, father of superstar Wayne, died recently "after a long battle with Parknson's Disease". I hope the implication was not that PD killed him. He may have had a long battle with PD but it did not kill him. People die with PD not from PD.
Just a clarification.
Every man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in Mankind.
What is the meaning of life and how do you answer what is unanswerable.
This is just my attempt to explain existential. Please if you see errors or you can expand on my thoughts, please do.
First, you need to know the meaning of essence which is a set of core properties that enable something to be what it is. For example, a knife consists of a blade and a handle, it doesn't matter if the handle is wood or cork, it is still knife, but if it has no blade, it is no longer a knife. The blade is the essential property of the knife. Essentialists believe that the essence of the thing came before its existence. They believe God imbued the thing (including humans) with a set of core values to enable the thing to be what it is and once the essenses are complete, only then does it give the thing its existence. That way the individual need not concern himself with the meaning of life as is path has been pre-ordained by God. We can see the basis of essentialism is that the essentials come before existence.
The existential movement proposes that existence precedes the essentials. You are what you make yourself to be. You are the sum of your choises, your actions. There is no greater power determining your future and nobody can make your choices for you. We are forced, condemned, to choose how we make our way in life
I found the following examples of an existential question:
What is the meaning of life? = What is the meaning (essence) of existence?
Who am I (essentially)? What is my true nature/essence? What is my true identity?
What is my greater purpose? How should I live my life?
What is death? What happens when we die?
Is there a god, and, if so, what is her /his/its nature?
In my poem THE SPEED OF DARK, I refer to a woman's thoughts as being "existential" meaning she was looking for meaning in a meaningless world. For some reason, that attracted me.
it has been recordered that 50%of the populace is dehydrated."NOT GOOD", I shout so you will hear.
Let us not forget our body is 75% water and our "maker" didn't intend for us to carry around a bag of noisy, slushing H2O, for kicks. No sir, he made sure that hydration's is important to our well-being
Your organs that depend on water will thicken and become lazy. Your blood and many other bodily fluids become oxygen deprived. You will be exhausted.
In short, you can end up feeling lethargic and tired, which is described as CFS – or chronic fatigue syndrome. If you’re tired and you don’t know why, consider that hydration might be the issue!
If your urine is real yellow urine - it's not diluted enough . If you can rule out drugs and foods that can affect the colour of your urine, get out the water bottle.
Constipation - can be caused by dehydration - Have some more water; keep those stools soft.
Other problems - headaches, mood swings, brain fog and on and on just because you didn't drink enough fluid. Get up off the couch reach for the glass, put it under the spiggot and.......well you know.
I have written about my grand hallucination. I truly believed there were 2 people in the house, so I called the police. Thank God the two cops who came were kind and gentle. They treated me with respect and understanding; otherwise I might still be in a home for the brain dead. You know, like the setting in "One Flew over the Cuckcoo Nest".
I didn't know at the time, but I have read that about 50% of PWP will suffer from hallucinations, so be prepared.
What is an hallucination ? I don't know exactly how to define it. From my experience(s) I would say an hallucination is the construct of a befuddled brain creating a perception of something that is not there.
Some writers say there is a connection between "hallucinations" and "delusions". I don't think so. An hallucination does not last. Once awakened, the hallucinator does not believe his episode. A delusion on the other hand is a deep and lasting belief in something that is obviously false. For example, former president Trump's continuing delusion that the election was stolen from him.
And, BTW, parkinson's disease "psychosis" (I hate that word) will probably worsen over time (like everything else).
What causes PWP to have hallucinations? Who knows? To date, nobody knows. So if you are a newcomer to our ranks, do not be taken in by the purveyors of cures. There are none, But we are told that a cure is not far off and I heartfully support that conclusion. Time will tell.
Well I got out of the hospital after 2 nights. Why was I hospitalized? A fall that scraped my face and knees so badly and some symptoms of heart problems that my kids all but forced into a hospital bed.
Good thing they did. I have never had such a complete workup - head, heart, abdomen, blood, etc.
And they found something wrong.
I don't know its medical name but a normal count of whatever it is, is 100; my count was 16,000. For some reason I think I was severely dehydrated- probably because they intravenously fed me 48 hours of some liquid and stressed the need for hydration.
When I went home, my face would have scarred young children, 2 days later, there was nary a scab to be seen. I am a fast healer.
Avoid this scenario - drink copious amount of water. There will be some site that recommends the daily required intake. Qui complianing. Just do it!
So, we went toe-to-toe with Covid-19 and we were winning but what we didn't realize was...... the war was a tag team match and covid-19 tagged its Brazilian partner and the war was renewed.
Well, the mutant virus soon discovered that it was being routed by vaccines constructed by its enemies. It was going to lose. Do you know what it did then?
That's right, it came crawling out of South Africa with extra weapons. It is uber-virulent and likely more nasty. The virus is poised to leave Africa and land in North America. It is The Black Death on steroids. Just to make certain it will wipe us out, its cousin is slowly, but surely, looking for blood in Brazil.
We are beginning to fight these upstarts and I am confident we will win. But for your own safety, double the surgical masks or use a KN-95 mask. Either one will keep the buggers in (out).
Life is getting weirder. You can decide if I personify the angel of death (BTW religious books do not mention an "Angel of Death". Only God can command one of his angels to take a life).
On with the background to the question in the title. I seem to be surrounded by death these days, the most gut - wrenching of which was the death of my wife just over a year ago - cancer.
Now check these out.
Case 1. A childhood friend, whom I had not seen in decades, invited me for lunch and during our conversation I noted that I had PD. "So what," he said,"We are all going to get something sometime." Six months later he died - lung cancer
Case 2. A childhood friend of mine telephoned me and we recalled old times. A few months later he died - cancer.
Case 3. Four of us rented an apartment. A vacancy arose when one got sick and later died - cancer. Of the remaining three, two died, one from a brain bleed and the other from a heart attack.
Case 4. Another roommate died from a heart attack.
An old friend noted, "At the rate we're leaving Doug, you may find out sooner than later. At our age I guess we can't expect anything else.
For me, a miracle I made it this far."
Life is coming at me too fast!
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Read MJF's new book "No Time Like the Future". It is by far the best he has written. It might scare you, but it will also show you how to handle your future with grace.
