Sunday, April 26, 2015

No Shootings, Stabbings, nor Rampages of a Non-Specific Nature

There was quiet through the night so I must be some kind of fookin' diplomat.  At the end of activity yesterday, sisters talk with each other and there is relative calm.  Politics is nothin' ... being the interface between sisters is diplomacy.

Note:  there is no 'bad guy' in this.  It's a result of illness.

There is some temptation to describe the situation as, for me, it is a case study and I do not know the individual.  What happens here reveals things the family did not know so I am the reporter on the scene.  Unlike TV news, this has to be accurate as they try to assess what's appropriate, who has been, erm, inaccurate in the past, etc.

The reason for describing it at all is that it may help you in dealing with such a situation.  The best advice is probably the simplest:  you don't need a psychology book, you need to be gentle no matter how much seeming provocation.  You cannot get pissed off as it WILL make it worse.

This is the third or fourth time I've encountered serious brain injury and maybe a key fact for you is that none of them died until long after.  Brain injury is, in some cases and to some extent, recoverable but above all you have to be gentle to have any chance of helping.

There is no editorial in this on brain death and the morality of managing that treatment.  It's a different situation and is not germane.

No need to go on to much with this or it will seem like I try to make myself a saint.  I don't want to be a fookin' saint.  I'd just end up on a stamp or something.


There are some fascinating stamps in circulation just now.  The Post Office has just re-released the Inverted Jenny stamp which features a misprint in which the Jenny aircraft was printed upside-down. Good news as she is still upside down and you can get that stamp right now.

Too much email and you forget about stamps.  You probably don't go to the P.O. too much but take a look at some of the stamps next time.  They have some gorgeous ones but I don't collect them, I just like to look at them.  I've got a page of Janis Joplin stamps but I've really got to love you to use those.  The specialty stamps don't stay in print all that long.  Get 'em while you can.

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