Updatia

Gave blood this morning, although purely for testing purposes! The doc needs a sample to see where we go from here on some of my meds, particularly the cholesterol stuff. As soon as he gets the results, I'll schedule a physical and we'll go from there. The nurse who did the drawing of blood was the first out of the last three or four to manage to get a full supply and the first to only have to use one needle. I was suitably impressed - although once upon a time, I would have expected them all to have a clue what they were doing, and to not have to poke around trying to find a spot that connects to something that bleeds.

Once the testing was done, I had to grab a bagel so I could start in on the prednesone to reduce inflammation in the ear - I'm on a diminishing dosage schedule, which means I have no chance of programming it into my head to make sure I don't forget. Should be fun, especially because one of the warnings with the med is to not skip doses or mess around with the prescribed sequence. I tend to do better with things I can repeat over and over and then switch over to an automatic cycle.

Still have absolutely no signal reception on the left ear, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that it will return to normal, and I will follow up when I get to that soon-to-be-scheduled physical. If it's going to stay as is forever, I'll probably have to learn more than the ASL alphabet - and I'll have to pick up the speed of my reading comprehension of said alphabet beyond it's current glacial (pre-global warming, of course) pace. On the plus side, if it does get that bad or worse, Deb is somewhat good at ASL, and one of my sister-in-laws used to teach ASL for Access, so it won't be starting completely from an entry-level position. Of course, I'm just stating that because it was mentioned in an earlier comment - I expect everything to come back to 100% once them durned bugs is vanquishified.

Biggest problem with lopsided hearing so far (other than the obvious lack itself and increase in difficulty overall): When the nurse called my name for the blood test I had absolutely no idea where in the very large, corridor like room - with various departments off doors on the two long sides - she was. I suppose it would have helped if I was more familiar with the place, but I had only been there for x-rays before, and that's an entirely different door. I have a similar problem in the cubes at work - I have to pay attention whenever I hear someone start talking, at least for a second, to figure out whether or not they expect me to be listening. Can't tell where they around me at all.

Rachel and Justin are both doing great with their injuries - no complications in their cases.

a dilemma

a dilemma
July 14, 1998

waking to the beat of drums
distant
tangling in the mists
primitive
primeval
syncopated with the breath and heart
savage as the jungle pyramids with their altars to bloodlust and powers of spilled
life

through the trees they come
ever closing in
never ceasing in their song of death
a veritable ballet of beauty
multi-coloured feathers
and cloaks once worn by the great cats
spiraling inward to the center
where i lay
eyelids locked tight with the sands of sleep

i dare not move lest they find me
despite their circling presence removing any doubts as to their focus
perhaps at the least thinking me to be asleep will gain more time

time for what, then?
to await their spears or knives or poison
or to await the stilling of my heart and breath whilst their drums carry the tune?
that would be madness should they wish to savour their kill

action then to speed the inevitable
let them see my anger and my power and not my terror
and let them rush in to the attack
and perhaps i might take more than one to the dark realms
take them with me

bracing myself on the cool dirt of the jungle floor
i gather my resolve my strength and my nerve

and i join the dance

Copyright (c) 1998 Everett A Warren

On the Nature of Love and the Nature of Language

This is post is one-half a reminder to myself to write more on the subjects - both Love and Language - and one-half a kick off in and of itself of discussion. It was originally a response to a post by heartssdesire, and like she did in her post, I found the subject intriguing enough - on several levels - to reproduce here for future reference.

Very thought provoking. I almost perfectly agree with you - I would change things ever so slightly, just a shade, such as: "will we be less able to feel deep love" to "will we be less likely to feel deep love" to come up with my own interpretation. Then again, more than one religious group has been frustrated with me over my ability "to see good in everything," which I kind of misunderstood to be the point of those particular groups.

I tend to go on at great length about the simplification of language - although I generally go at the subject not from the point of changing meaning, angling instead at the "dumbing down" of the concepts being discussed and the method of communicating those reduced concepts.

I do feel the words themselves can be more malleable, after all "words can have two meanings," so I'm not altogether against watered down meanings - or, at least, I haven't put specific thought towards that area. While I admit to using some of the simplified meanings, but I also retain an understanding of the deeper - or at least more archaic - meanings. In fact, in my poetry, I often play with that relationship, encouraging multiple interpretations.

Ironically, I've been thinking a lot about the diminishing nature of love - not some of the specifics you mentioned directly, but how it is often used to describe something in the singular, when it can be applied much more broadly and still retain a deep meaning.