Kathy,
I have just learned that if I send you a 'tease' that you cannot resist finding out what the tease is. The link to my memoir's synopsis is near the bottom of this e-mail, which you already know the fullness of.
After my final session of my cardiac rehab in November, 2006, I shared with the head nurse, a very special woman named Tracy, the highlights of what I euphemistically call 'My Second Vocation In Life' and I explained to Tracy that, in hindsight, my experience is much like solving a Rubik's Cube (which I've never personally done) with the first phase I completed as a child in deducing the intended interpretation of Christ's statements recorded in Luke 21:25a, Matthew 24:29-30a, and Matthew 24:36a. And, in 1989, when it was a given to me that the celestial events described by Christ in Matthew 24:29 would be (and were) fulfilled in 1999, the second and final phase of solving this Rubik's Cube was determining whether or not I am the Christian astronomer who is scripturally predestined to publicize the fulfillment of Matthew 24:29 in 1999 to the world-at-large. And, on October 21, 1991, I finally determined the answer to that question to be in the affirmative and, thus, the Rubik's Cube was successfully solved and I told Tracy that after you solve a Rubik's Cube, you place it up on a bookshelf and you admire it.
I also told Tracy the following experience about how I was with three friends in Mendon, IL playing cards in mid-1999 and one of my friends had been told by a mutual acquaintence about my belief system (which really upset me greatly!) and, in the middle of the card game, Lucy told me, "Uh, Greg, your belief that you're one of these Two Witnesses, I hope that you're not being deceived." I was rather nervous as I was sure that Brenda and Charlie had no idea what Lucy what talking about.
I defensively replied, "Well, I hope that Jesus isn't a deceptive sort of person." (When I later shared that statement with my therapist, he laughed.) I finally stopped the card game and I took my clipboard which was being used to keep score and I went through the chronology of my discovery and after I was finished, I told them that I can now see, in hindsight, that when I met my psychiatrist in October, 1989, he stuck a sign to my head that said, "Work in Progress."
I told Tracy that I told them, rather wistfully, "I can remember back in '89 when these things were being revealed to me, I thought to myself, 'My family and friends will be so proud of me.'" Brenda replied, "It didn't turn out that way, did it?"
I told Brenda, a bit sadly, "No, it didn't."
I then told Tracy, rather excitedly, "And there had been something that I had been wanting to say but I was never in the right situation to say it and I realized that this is the perfect time to say it. And I told them------and then I pointed at Tracy and told her, "And you remember this"-----and I told them (in a very doofus voice)..., "I....don't know what....people are looking for but.....(slowly shrugging my shoulders).....I'm sorry," sounding very apologetic.
Tracy then started laughing very hard and I started laughing with Tracy.
Wow, Kathy, you have been through some very difficult times!! In a wheelchair and suffering from fibromyalgia. I had a friend with fibromyalgia and I understand that it is poorly understood and, at first (I think), doctors weren't sure if was a real physical malady. I assume that you are now always in pain and you just have to live with it.
Your ending statement,
"I've pissed off a lot of people since I became okay with me and it is so liberating!!!!! Ha! Including Dorothy!"
reminded me of the great difficulty that I had with Mernell (and others) as she could see me only as a person who was a frequent visitor in psychiatric wards between 1989-1992. I don't know how well I have described Mernell to you, Kathy, but she is an ex who loves to hold such stigmas over your head and she portrayed me in a very negative light to my children, especially Johnathan who told me when he was in Middle School that it was difficult for him to have a father who was a 'nut' (Thanks, Mernell). Only the passage of much time could erase that image of me.
And then, like you, I was experiencing years of good health (mental health, in my case) and Mernell absolutely could not stand the idea that I could enjoy life and not have to work while she had to work. When I stopped by her house one day, she shared her anger about this great 'unfairness' in her eyes and I philosophically told Mernell, "I am a strong believer in that a person has got to play the hand that life deals 'em." (That didn't make Mernell feel any better for some reason.)
Also, your ability in 'pissing' people off because you are doing so well is applying what I have learned from more than one source in what is called "The Best Revenge", the answer being a simple two word phrase that you may have also learned: 'Living Well'.
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26999.html
Well, here is that link to my synopsis:
http://synopsismemoir.blogspot.com/
I need to close. It sounds like we have quite a bit of catching up to do.
Take care.
Greg
No comments:
Post a Comment