Tyrant: a person who governs oppressively, unjustly, and arbitrarily; despot.
It's been a few days since Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Seal Team 6. I haven't said or commented on any posts that have been on Facebook or any other media. So now I've decided to comment.
I'm glad the man is dead. However, I will not and I did not celebrate his death. It may be just me, but I find it odd that we were upset when Iraq or whoever it was, celebrated the deaths of the Americans on 9/11. And then when Bin Laden is killed, people flooded the streets in NYC and DC and partied like it was New Year's. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy he is dead. I think the world is a better place without him. I just don't think it is right to celebrate it.
About the conspiracy theorists out there. First of all, get a freakin' life. He died. The body was buried at sea so his grave couldn't be a shrine for all fanatics. He died this past Sunday, not a week ago, not a month ago, not even 3 years ago. It was not a bombing raid. It was the Navy Seals who kick ass all the time. No, Pakistan shouldn't have been told about the raid before it occurred. Why tip off Bin Laden? They knew where he was for the past few years.
As for where Bin Laden will be spending eternity: I don't know. It's not up to me. I believe in a benevolent God. A just God. A fair God. I personally wouldn't want God's job. I'm sure God sees something good in all of us. Sometimes He probably has to search very deep inside people (serial killers, pedophiles, dictators), but I think He can find it. I hope so. None of us is perfect or completely innocent.
Thanks for reading.
I was watching CBS Sunday Morning today, as I normally do. And they had a segment on Alzheimer's. This is one disease that I am terrified of getting. Yes cancer is bad, heart disease and all those others are scary, but this changes a person completely. I also believe that my grandmother had it or a least a form of dementia. It was never diagnosed and it could have been caused by all the medications that her doctor had her on. She died almost 15 years ago and reliable tests then were not available. There is no cure. There is no way to prevent it.
Anyway, back to the program. The reporter was telling us the story of this woman, Jan who had early onset. She was quite cheerful and confused. You come to find out that this is his wife. To see her talk to him about her husband (obviously not realizing that he was her husband) and for him to have tears streaming down his face, was moving. I don't know how he could sit there and deal with it. He obviously still loves this woman, but she hasn't a clue. She loves her husband, but can't see that he is sitting in front of her. And she couldn't recall her husbands name. She had a nickname for him. The story continues that he now has a girlfriend in the real world. In fact, the GF has met and visits his wife in the assisted living home that Jan had to go to when she became violent at home. Side note: he did take care of her for a long time until she became hard to handle.
The whole thing that he had a girlfriend (who was a widow) and they were living together, opened up a conversation with my husband. We tend to go into these moral debates that have no answers! Oh well. Anyway, I said I could understand why he found someone else, for companionship and comfort. Yes, he is married to her and he did take those vows, "for better, for worse, in sickness and in health." But the question I posed was, was she the same woman he married, mentally? Of course not. She doesn't know him, she doesn't even know herself (she looks in the mirror and sees another woman, not recognizing herself). He has not divorced her, so I give him credit for that. He truly loves his wife. Is he doing the right thing? I really don't know. And I'm torn. I believe you take your vows seriously (and I think he did), and that you stand by your spouse even if they are ill (mentally and physically). But with Alzheimer's, the person no longer is who you married. Are they? People change in a marriage. We grow, hopefully together. We usually are not the same people as we were when we got married. I've been married 20 years and I'm not the same. But that's not what Alzheimer's does. It changes the person's mind that they don't know family, friends or themselves. I know of cases where patients in assisted living, become attached to another Alzheimer patients and "date" them. So who is wrong in this case. Yes, I know the moral issue, the sacrament of marriage. So will God punish this reporter for finding another woman while married to another who is not herself? I don't know. And I guess that's why I'm not God. As a Christian, I believe God is a loving God. A just God. A fair God. I'm not sure there is a concrete answer.
Now on the flip side of this, is the movie The Notebook. I know. It's a movie, but it is the story of a man who stands by his wife. Everyday he reads her their story (that she wrote down and made him promise her that he would read to her). A story she can't remember from day to day. But every so often she remembers that it is their story and she recognizes the man as her husband and true love. It's a movie that I love a lot. But it is something that I think I would do if I were in his position or that I would want my husband to do if I were in her position. It's a huge burden on this man (Noah). One he seems to take willingly. And of course he is in poor health and the movie ends with him lying next to her and they die in each others arms.
So compare the reporter to a fictional character. Who is right?
I had a taste of mortality yesterday. A guy who was a friend of mine in high school died. He was a year behind me in school. Now I haven't spoken to him or seen him since high school, but his death touched me. Maybe it's because he was close to my age. I don't know what killed him. Probably a heart attack, stroke or aneurysm. We'll find out in a couple of days. It makes you think. We are not immortal, no matter what we think. We are all going to die, we just don't know when. I remember when I was little I was so afraid of dying. Of my parents dying. I had a recurring dream of my dad dying of a heart attack. Funny thing is, he had a mild heart attack and has congestive heart disease. He is still around, but I wonder for how long. My parents will be 74 this year. My in-laws are going to be 76. They have lived a long life and a pretty good one I think. I think as I get older, death isn't as scary. What scares me is dying now and leaving my kids behind at a young age. What scares me now is one of my kids dying before me. Which leads me to my philosophy of life: you have to live it to the fullest. We need to pay attention to the things that are important in life: family, friends and not dwell on having the perfect house, the right car or what others think of you. Time is so short. We should enjoy our life. When I die and hopefully go to heaven, I want to be able to say that I lived a good life, not that I had the right car or a clean house. So go out there and enjoy the life you have.
Thanks for reading.
I know. You've missed me. A great deal has happened in the past few months. First, I moved. It was an adventure to say the least. We went to visit family in Ohio for a week. The other half had to go on to Virginia to begin his job, so I had the joy of driving 3 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat and a Uhaul trailer to the new home by myself. I would like to say it was pain free, but no such luck! The dogs were uncooperative (let's play instead of peeing in the grassy areas), the cat complained and I was tired. The kids were fine. They watched episodes of Psych all the way to Virginia. Now, it was a beautiful drive, but the damn GPS took us such a stupid way. We're changing that.
I'm no longer living out of boxes, but we still do have boxes of stuff that I am slowly going through to see if we need it or just pitch it. Number 2 son did decide to move in with us after all. He discovered that living with the 'rents is cheaper and he gets better fed! Actually it's nice having him here. Number 1 son and wife visited us two weeks after we moved in. That was a very nice visit and he isn't that far away anymore. Number 1 daughter doesn't hate us as much, but she is the only one not settled in completely. She is determined to go back to OK for college. We'll see. Everyone else has adjusted. It's beginning to feel like home.
Christmas. My whole family came to visit. Eleven extra people. It was great seeing them all. It was chaotic at times, but all in all a great visit. We went to the Marine museum which is excellent. They went to DC for a day. I don't know if we will be going back in the summer or not. I really want to take a real vacation!!
So now today I will be taking down Christmas decorations and getting my sewing room together. I have many quilts and projects that I want to get started and/or done.
Hopefully I will get back to this blog and get back on my observations of life. Living in the DC area, I'm bound to find something to write about!!!
Later.
