I’ll get better at this, I promise! I’m on Facebook, where I write short notes about what I’m doing and read short notes about what my friends are doing, but this is different. I guess maybe if I imagine that anyone who might read this is a friend of mine, I can do it.
So, friend, I’ll start by telling you about my present preoccupation. My mother is dying of uterine cancer, and of course it is hard on me and the rest of my family. My mom is 87, and my dad is 92, so I’ve been preparing myself for their passing for some time now, but to watch my mom in pain is difficult. My mom’s fortitude is amazing. She is not giving up easily. Both she and my dad, as well as my two sisters apparently, are people who see only what they want to see. That was great when I was a teenager—I got away with a lot! But now, I feel alone and too responsible. My sister who lives closest to mom and dad takes them to their doctor appointments, etc., but all three of them neglect mentioning important symptoms and forget the doctor’s instructions, so I can’t find out anything, and I am so frustrated. My mom has hospice care, which is a real blessing. She gets to stay in her home and with her husband of 68 years. Although it is difficult for me to be left out of the loop, I am having to trust that she is getting all of the care she needs from them.
World AIDS Day just passed (1 Dec.), which also makes me remember dear friends who died of AIDS. The next art exhibition that we’re planning to open at my church in January is entitled AIDS Now: Leadership Now. Leadership has been the theme for World AIDS Day for the last three years, and we want to express the need for leadership in the AIDS crisis in our art. The AIDS crisis is still growing globally, in the United States as well as in the more publicized countries: India and Africa. I read an article a few days ago that revealed that the latest group showing increases in HIV/AIDS is the elderly. However, HIV was detected in a large number of students in a high school here in St. Louis. The media excitedly spread the news at once, then suddenly went silent. It’s as if someone influential told them to shut up about it, probably because too many parents were becoming alarmed. How stupid is that? Clearly there is a great need for leadership in keeping the HIV/AIDS problem in the forefront in the media and in insisting on ongoing search for remedies.
These two diseases, cancer and AIDS, are Evil. They are the worst public enemies (besides the Bush Administration) in the world. They are the terrorists that should receive the most attention.
I won’t apologize for posting a doom-and-gloom message today, because these issues are very real and need at least as much attention as global warming, obesity in the United States, hurricanes and tsunamis, earthquakes. and the torture of suspected terrorists—all of which are real enemies of the people as well.
