People often ask me how I am doing. But maybe that’s the wrong question — for all of us.
Let’s try: What am I doing? Or, what are you doing?
Well, I’m staying alive, staying alive as the Bee Gees put it. My primal survival instincts are kicking in. My degenerative brain disease isn’t the Shootout at the OK Corral. It’s more a war of attrition; not a sprint, but a marathon. Tools include exercise, diet, cognitive workouts, music, writing, research and love. Absorbing the love and care of my friends and family, even when it hurts.
What am I doing?
Making up bad jokes and puns.
DId you hear the one about the guy who said ‘Doctor, doctor what wrong with me? Doctor says I’m afraid you have a dire liver.
Dire liver? The man exclaimed. Well, am I going to liver dire?
What am I doing?
Eating sesame seed crackers, putting sesame seed in soups and looking for other ways to consume sesame seed oil. This follows a study that showed sesame seed slows down the unwanted proliferation of Lewy bodies, the protein tied to Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
What am I doing?
Getting my second and final COVID vaccination. I received a Pfizer vaccination at the Birmingham airport this morning.
It was cold, windy with temperatures dropping below 50. I appreciate all the health care workers who while trying to keep themselves warm, especially their hands, administered vaccine shots in a drive- through setting.
It occurred to me that this organized and quick delivery set-up was happening at hundreds (thousands?) of locations across the country, a remarkable feat when you extrapolate. It’s what we are doing.
But there were fewer people getting vaccinations this morning than there were three weeks ago when I got my first one. Nationally, they are worried about a slowdown in vaccinations. What are we doing? Waiting for COVID’s next variant.
What am I doing?
Sitting here wondering if I am going to have any side effects and hoping they will be inconsequential like my first shot and like its been for most of the millions of shots administered. My arm is slightly sore. That’s it.
What am I doing?
Musing on the grocery store observation from my wife, Catherine, who said there’s a buoyancy in the air she believes is tied to the Floyd verdict yesterday (Tuesday 4/20/2021).
What am I doing?
Realizing that is the right question. And ‘what’ is the right word.
At this stage it’s not how we are doing. That’s looking back, making an assessment, writing a report to file alongside millions of other words, meetings minutes and court depositions. That’s wringing our hands while a modern day plague kills millions of people; while bullets are sprayed every day in neighborhoods, schools, stores, workplaces and dark alleys across America.
So the question is put this way:
What are we doing?