September 24, 2025
Good afternoon,
My friend has dementia. It is not rare, and probably all of you know someone, or have a family member who has the disease. My father-in-law suffered from it for seven years. We lost a part of him every day. Every time we saw him he was always a little worse. I am not the only person who is asking the unanswerable questions about disease, life and death.
But, of course, it is personal this time, as well at other times too. My friend is in the hospital now. I sat with him for a few hours last evening. There is nothing to say, or I cannot find anything meaningful to say. Maybe if I could sing 1970’s rock and roll music that would be good. But my friend is not in the room anymore. He is there physically, but where has his mind gone ? He looked into my eyes, I think, and nothing came out of his mouth. When the words came they were mumbled and so quiet. How should I pray ? I had hours to think about it.
With disease, we can pray, ” Dear Lord, please take my loved one, or heal them now .” I know prayer does not work this way, but I would like this to come about. With disease, we are often at a loss of what to do. We do not like to see someone who is hurting and/or in pain. I do not like to see my friend, and his family, suffering. Vietnamese culture says that ‘ life is hard, there will be suffering ‘ . Our culture, I think, believes that suffering should not happen to us. and if it does, there should be some treatment to fix it today or at least tomorrow. Two very different cultural attitudes towards life and suffering. So, how do you react to the role of suffering in the human condition ? Is there an answer at all ?
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish? Psalm 22:1 ( Jesus said these words on the crosss as well. )
Praying for the peace of Gaza. AMEN
Fred
black and white shadows
crush humanity’s freedom
am I complicit ?
MPL
Ponder Anew 