“A common frustration expressed by caregivers…”
. . . is the inability to find physicians who are knowledgeable about LBD,” or Lewy body disease. It is the second most common dementia, yet it is misdiagnosed 80 percent of the time (J’s was), leading to suboptimal treatment at best and disaster at worst, since people with Lewy react very badly to antipsychotic medications that are often given to agitated Alzheimer’s patients.
Finally, finally, a major medical center, NYU Langone, is doing something about it. (And in New York! If only.) In J’s honor, take a moment to learn a bit about the disease that killed him. It may help you help someone in the future, or belatedly recognize what it was that really ailed someone you loved. And pass it on.
The Gift of the Dying
My brother visited us the weekend before, and wrote this 3 days before J died.
The gift of the dying
Is their knowing.
The dying know it all
But only their eyes say so.
And what they say is this:
Go. Live. Sing.
Pray for me,
But don’t spend all day on it.
Outside, the world
Is growing accustomed
To my absence,
And being ceaselessly amazed
At the arrivals,
Raw from their journey and,
Like you, shocked
At being torn away.
Turn your attention to me,
Ever so briefly,
Say the dying,
So that the fierce forward-leaning
Nowness
Of life
Can shock you anew,
And build your resolve
To call out to the cosmos
With all the devoted desperation
Of your borrowed soul.
Go,
Say the dying with their fluttering eyes.
Go, but don’t leave me.
Come back,
So i can see what coming back is like,
Once more,
And so that you may remember
That in coming back,
You are practiced
In the art that i learn even now:
The art
Of going
Home.
What Friends are For
A frazzled spaniel attracts the attention of a film crew shooting footage of the devastation left behind by the tsunami, leading them back to what at first appears to be its dead companion. It turns out the other dog was only injured. Both animals were later transported to safety and are receiving medical attention.
Inexorable Power of the Sea
What begins as a trickle effectively destroys a town in less than seven minutes:
A Google street view of the area before the tsunami can be seen here.
Sendai Quake
If you ever wondered what a massive earthquake feels or looks like up-close and personal, watch this video recorded in a house in Sendai while it happened:
And here’s what it was like inside a Tokyo supermarket about 250 km south:
Really Bad Taste.
OK, let’s allow for argument’s sake that they were the exception — that it was love, not (except in the eyes of the law) rape. It certainly wasn’t a passing fancy. But now they’re marketing their love (is it still love, then?) by promoting rape.
Don’t Fire Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes!
Ever wonder why you can see “the whites” of human eyes at all? File this under “Department of Who Knew”:
Human eyes are somewhat unique in the animal kingdom in that the sclera is very plainly visible at all times (except when the eye is closed). This is not just due to the white color of the human sclera, which many other species share, but also to the fact that the human iris is relatively small and comprises a significantly smaller portion of the exposed eye surface compared to other animals. It is theorized that this adaptation evolved because of our social nature as the eye became a useful communication tool in addition to a sensory organ. It’s believed that the conspicuous sclera of the human eye makes it easier for one individual to infer where another individual is looking, increasing the efficacy of this particular form of nonverbal communication. Animal researchers have also found that, in the course of their domestication, dogs have also developed the ability to pick up visual cues from the eyes of humans, making them one of only two species known to seek visual cues from another individual’s eyes. Interestingly enough, dogs do not seem to use this form of communication with one another and only look for visual information from the eyes of humans.
Wait, I forgot a Fox!
For Amba that Chicago Icon, Nellie Fox….here shown with the Awesome Minnie Minoso.
Ambiance 