g my grandmother off her Aricept because he thought she didn't need it. I said that whatever you want to call it, it's a degenerative brain disorder that grandma has and, though medications can't cure it, they can slow the process and increase the quality of life that she has remaining. He seemed to understand this and accept it, but my mother and aunt continue to be worried about their welfare (they both still live at home). Though I share their concern, I can't help but admire my granddad for his steadfastness, his courage, his wisdom - even though it's been tempered with a heady dose of denial. He's living the life that he's always lived - a proud and unrelenting one. An American life...
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
THE PASSAGE OF TIME
I had a good talk with my grandfather yesterday evening. He wants to believe that "there's no such thing as Alzheimer's" and bases this on something he says he saw on television. A federal judge, he related, threw out the diagnosis of Alzheimer's, telling the doctors who presented it that "you've been before me over 11 times now - I don't want to see you again!" A beautiful fantasy, but I reminded him of the reality of the dementia I had seen in my life and - most importantly - my grandmother's. "It's just old age," he said. My mom wanted me to talk to him because he was seriously thinking about takin
g my grandmother off her Aricept because he thought she didn't need it. I said that whatever you want to call it, it's a degenerative brain disorder that grandma has and, though medications can't cure it, they can slow the process and increase the quality of life that she has remaining. He seemed to understand this and accept it, but my mother and aunt continue to be worried about their welfare (they both still live at home). Though I share their concern, I can't help but admire my granddad for his steadfastness, his courage, his wisdom - even though it's been tempered with a heady dose of denial. He's living the life that he's always lived - a proud and unrelenting one. An American life...
g my grandmother off her Aricept because he thought she didn't need it. I said that whatever you want to call it, it's a degenerative brain disorder that grandma has and, though medications can't cure it, they can slow the process and increase the quality of life that she has remaining. He seemed to understand this and accept it, but my mother and aunt continue to be worried about their welfare (they both still live at home). Though I share their concern, I can't help but admire my granddad for his steadfastness, his courage, his wisdom - even though it's been tempered with a heady dose of denial. He's living the life that he's always lived - a proud and unrelenting one. An American life...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
ARCHETYPES OF THE ZODIAC
AS A GIFT to myself after passing my National Counselor's Examination up in Fayetteville yesterday, I wandered back to some of the old favorite places of mine which I frequented back in my college days. One of these is the Dickson Street Bookstore, at which my father and I spent $40 in fact. The same old bespectacled and bearded fellow I encountered back when I was a lowly undergrad was still running the place. One of the books I purchased is this one here to the right. I remember seeing it long ago and wanting to have it but, of course, not wanting to pay full price. I spent most of this morning's early hours engrossed in it, and it's absolutely wonderful.This work reflects the very best of the ancient practice of astrology and all the reasons that I hold it dear - the realization of archetypal forces upon the mind of man. As for me personally, my sun's in Leo, my moon's in Virgo, and Aquarius is rising. Each chapter of the book tells of one particular Zodiacal sign and the old stories which support it, and reading Leo and Virgo so far have greatly illuminated the quest for my own self-knowledge. I've studied this stuff for years and have come across most of it some time or another in the past, but this book really brought it together for me and put it all in perspective. I am reminded, for instance, how often overshadowed by Virgoean self-doubt and some of the other Mercurial strengths and weaknesses.
Some people may have reservations about engaging the Western Mystery Tradition in any fashion, looking on it as a sacrilege conflicting with Christian sensibilities. To me, however, it is our heritage - a wealth of inner knowledge which demands to be explored by any serious psychonaut or person interested in psychology. One has to know one's self and thereby gain a sense of being genuine before he or she can go out and do meaningful works bourne of true spiritual purpose.
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