Dementia is brutal. I knew this, of course, but I didn’t know this until my father got it. I wrote yesterday about not knowing when it was dementia and when it was dysfunction, and let me throw depression into the mix. Depression for my father because of course the dementia is making him depressed. I’m saying that… Continue Reading
Dementia is brutal. I’m not making an inflammatory statement by saying that, I think. It takes no prisoner and leaves everyone it comes in contact with hurt, battered, and bruised. Emotionally, if not physically. There is no reasoning with it nor is there any way to get around it. In the last post about this… Continue Reading
I have been studying Taiji for fourteen or fifteen years. I have come so far, and I am proud of the progress I have made. I was a terrible student in the beginning because I was so resistant to everything my teacher was telling me. I apologized to her later, but she laughingly brushed it… Continue Reading
For the first twenty years of my life, I felt like I was an alien without the manual for being human. Part of that was because I was the kid of two immigrants who did not want to be in America. Or rather, one of them did not want to be, and he was the… Continue Reading
My brother was over yesterday, and we were talking about my weapons. I had mentioned that I wanted a nice new weapon because most of my weapons are practice ones. That means either wooden or dull steel. I love my sword, but the steel is dull. It’s better for practicing, of course. My brother said… Continue Reading
Yesterday, I was talking about my terrible first Taiji teacher. Honestly, he was the reason I did not find another teacher for quite some time. When I did look again, I had a few rules. One, I wannted a woman. Two, no uniforms or anything I had to buy from the studio. Three, I didn’t… Continue Reading
I have pretty much given up on Slate advice columns because I don’t like most of the columnists and, to be frak, the commentariat is….not my cup of tea in general. Or rather, I never know which way they’re going to swing, and it’s frustrating to me. For the most part, I can guess which… Continue Reading
When I was a kid, I was taught that there was nothing about the family that you could say to anyone not in the family. I’m not talking about big things like marital difficulties (though, that, of course, was also verboten), but about the little things. The story I tell over and over goes like… Continue Reading
My Taiji teacher told me that her classmate got into a terrible motorcycle accident last Sunday. He had a super-great helmet (which got crushed) so his head is fine, but the left side of his body is destroyed. Everything is broken, torn, or sprained. Collarbone, tibia, maybe femur, arm. Broken bones mend, yes, but torn… Continue Reading
One thing I have difficulty with is unspoken rules. It’s funny because when I read advice columns, there are always unspoken rules that commenters get/have that I don’t undrestand. Like there was a letter about celebrating a 30th birthday over at Slate, and one of the regular commenter was derisive about the idea of an… Continue Reading