Saturday, May 12, 2012
Mom, the Klan, Republicans, Catholic Clergy (some), and MY NEUROPATHY!!!
>>> EMAIL TO MY BACKER:
Mornin' Sir!!!
And thanks for your consistent, REAL concern.
It seems like you've been such an important part of my life for a long time now, so I easily forget we have not been acquainted except for since late last summer or early fall, so you are not familiar with some of my history.
I expect to take your advice, but want to point out some things you probably don't know.
1. My mother is actually a brilliant person (her Dad, Henry John Meyer, went straight from high school to law school without bothering with college in-between (although he did get his law degree, by then, he had decided he could not in conscience "make money off other people's troubles" and opted to teach high school and coach basketball -- as he felt that was a FAR more honorable thing to do, and money was not his motivator.
My maternal grandmother, Gertrude (Hesselbrock) Meyer, ALSO taught school (grade school, I think), and in fact was credited by one of our nation's THEN HIGHLY-REGARDED native-American poets as having given him the gift of poetry -- I only wish i remembered the poet's name.
Grandma, who died when I was six, I remember mostly for her lilting, jolly voice (and copious lap), her GIGANTIC jaw, her teaching me how to pluck a chicken, and her OVER-BOILED asparagus. Grandpa not only had a fully-equipped carpentry shop in his garage, but a chicken coop as well -- and a HUGE garden with every imaginable vegetable, cut down the center by a long grape arbor, the grapes from which he made his own sweet red wine. There was a GIANT, abundantly-bearing cherry tree to the back of the garden with a rope swing hanging from it.
After the Great Depression hit (my mother would have been six), my grandfather (a LIFE-LONG DEMOCRAT), felt morally obliged to take the position of THE FIRST EVER County Welfare Director when his best friend, a judge, offered it to him. This involved a CUT IN PAY from meager teacher salary, and this is why my mother -- in 2012 -- still occasionally complains that she "couldn't even afford a Baby Ruth candy bar (her favorite, still).
But this is only one of my mother's resentments that she still nurses, immaturely. You see, not only had her "retarded" uncle (also when Mom was six) FORCED her repeatedly to give him blow jobs (which the Catholic priest -- once Mom began going to confession -- told her was HER fault for seducing him), but around the same time, Grandpa ran for County Clerk as a Democrat.
NOT ONLY did the Ku Klux Klan (which through the Twentieth Century was STRONGEST in southern Indiana and Ohio, stronger than in ANY Southern state -- I remember as a child seeing the signs as we drove into Franklin County, IN where Brookville is: "Nigger: Don't let the sun set on your ass in Franklin County!") actually BURN A CROSS ON MY GRANDPARENTS' LAWN -- because they were Catholic, one of the groups the Klan (still associated with the Republican Party most places) hated, along with blacks and Jews, and Grandpa was running for public office, but although my grandfather WON that election, he conceded after the Klan in conjunction with the Republican Party CHALLENGED the vote, claiming some German immigrants (the only kind they had then) had voted illegally and they threatened to investigate and charge any who were found to have violated the law.
My Grandfather could not stomach the whole thing and the troubles that would be caused poor immigrants just trying to establish a new life in "The Promised Land of Opportunity" -- WHETHER GUILTY OR NOT, and IMMEDIATELY conceded to the Republican.
These ALL were a lot of horrors for my mother to absorb, though it is ENTIRELY BEYOND ME how she EMBRACED the "nazi" Republicans and Catholic Church who had done her so much wrong. By end of high school, she had gotten the special award from Henry Ford, the CHIEF American Industrialist trying to get the US to join the NAZIS (why Republicans STILL tend to drive Fords and Lincolns and Democrats GM cars).
I got off point, but I have not previously reported these things in detail. My uncles (including Uncle Bob the dentist whom Mom made certain was forced to take DOUBLE-DOSE Lithium for a bogus, nonsensical diagnosis of "Mono-Polar" until he died of chemically-induced diabetes after Mom realized in his heart -- NOT how he acted -- he was more gay than straight, and he had allowed his oldest daughter to marry a Jew (and I really DO have those notes intact in her hand), as well as my Uncle Mart, a lawyer, were both life-long Democrats.
Well, the point I had been TRYING to reach is that Mom won many academic awards as well, and got bother her RN and BS in nursing, TAUGHT nursing, and then RAN Proctor & Gamble's Skin Research Lab in Cincinnati (until shortly before I was born). She is EMINENTLY practical, and taught us all how to take care of ourselves using doctors minimally -- and KNOWING when a doctor is necessary.
So it is against this background that I do NOT panic as I can see signs of my foot improving (slowly) -- but still think you are right.
2. My foot really did heal once I got lots of sunshine, salt water, and desiccating walks on the beach sand. I will continue in this mode here and now (and see a doctor too).
3. I have taken the B vitamin complex only two days now, and I already have had MORE THAN A 50% DECREASE in the pins and needles neuropathy sensation in my feet. Otherwise, it has been at least four years since I had ANY fluctuation in the level of this sensation. I have suffered this problem for about ten years now (and suspect it is due to the years-long Lithium use). I'm HIGHLY ENCOURAGED!!! (but afraid I will no longer be so quick to give up tobacco).
4. Considering how simple this vitamin B addition has been and the fact that it was a "simple" -- meaning non-professional Mexican who had the sense to recommend this -- I'M SHOCKED THAT MY MOTHER WHO KNOW ALL ABOUT NUTRITION, VITAMINS, ETC. NEVER MENTIONED TRYING IT.
5. The best part of New Hanover County "Detention Center" was that not only did BOTH the jail psychologist and psychiatrist find me QUITE SANE and in NO NEED OF PSYCH MEDS each time I was falsely incarcerated (the longer two of the SIX times), but the nursing staff had me THOROUGHLY checked for diabetes (perfect blood sugar findings over a week of testing daily -- TWICE), but they ordered all my organs tested that might have been affected by the 30 years of UNNECESSARY Lithium, as well as those that my edema (in ankles and feet which comes and goes) could have indicated where not functioning properly. ALL TEST CAME BACK THAT MY ORGANS FUNCTION AT PEAK PERFORMANCE, and we could only conjecture that the circulation problems stem from the long-term Lithium use, smoking, and my extraordinary leg-length.
So diabetes in NOT on the radar screen, and THANK GOD, intitial results show the vitamin B really helping!!! Improved circulation will speed healing regardless whatever else is done.
So NOW I have full intentions of calling my mother for Mother's Day (probably today in case circuits to the US are busy tomorrow. I think I'll adopt a cat first so I have some purrrrrrsonal assistance in getting past MY resentments toward Mom and her campaigns that have harmed me -- and I believe the ENTIRE COUNTRY.
After all, as Mr. Shakespeare wrote: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL!!!
Scott
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