Today has been an interesting day full of various emotions. I never thought that an assisted living home would be a place of comic relief. In my mind assisted living means you are almost to the jumping off point. In fact I thought of it as one of the most depressing places a person can go. However, it just isn't so. There is something comical to me about the dining hall in this place. Today my cousin and I went to see my grandfather before lunch. Eventually one of the nurses came in and told us it was time to eat. So, Grandfather, Jess, and I all walk to the elevator to go downstairs to the dining hall. Ok. I want you to think about this. An elevator? I mean those doors close pretty fast. How in the world is a person with a walker suppose to make it out of an elevator in one piece? Sometimes I cannot even make it out of an elevator without it nearly cutting off one of my limbs! Well, Jessica and I must have had the same thought because she immediately put her hand in front of the door to keep it from closing. An act, although thoughtful, was completely unnecessary. They have programmed the elevator to stay open for what seems like an eternity! Hahaha. I mean I think I could have left the elevator and ran a lap around the building before that door would have closed on me. Anyway, after we got of the elevator we walk into the dining hall. And we were a bit late because we had been visiting. As soon as we walk in they all start to talk. Who are they? Why are they here? It was as if visitors determined your popularity at this place. Then I saw it. The line of walkers parked up against the wall. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Every person walks in and parks their walker like they are going to a drive in moving before they sit down. But it gets better. They say birds of a feather flock together, well this could not be more true of Grandfather's dining posse. There are about seven of them that all sit at the same table. Grandfather, who has dementia, along with three other males who also have dementia. There is also a blind women with a mind as sharp as a tack and a man that mumbles every word he says. Here is the conversation (and keep in mind my grandfather is a former reverend with a VERY dry personality and completely straight laced):Grandfather: (completely and obviously bragging) These are my beautiful granddaughters. They came to visit me today.
Blind lady: Nice to meet you ladies
Mumbling guy: totally not sure what he said
Grandfather: (under his breath) This guy talks all the time. I don't know what the hell he is saying.
Bahahahahahahah. I mean just imagine it. Never in my life. Thats all I can say.
Then later, the mood of the day completely changed. My struggle lately is wanting to have friends close by to talk to but not having any. Don't misunderstand I have friends, but living in Gainesville I have to spend the majority of my free time alone. I don't really have any friends here. So after my visit I was dreading going home and working on things. But, I decided to call a friend to meet me and work on things together. We ended up at Waffle House talking for about four hours. Philosophizing over coffee and pecan waffles. This is what I got from the conversation:
God is simple. He is black and white, yet He is complex in His simplicity. We have choice when it comes to believing in him, and there are four options to believing in God: (A)There is a God and you believe in Him, (B)There is a God and you do not believe in Him, (C)There is not a God and you believe in Him, or (D)There is not a God and you don't believe in Him. I mean think about those options. It is mind blowing to me. Imagine yourself in each situation. Option B you are risking everything, option A you can lose nothing, option C you lose nothing, and option D gives you no reason for living. These conversations thrill me, challenge me, and enlighten me and I hope reading this does the same for you.
1 comment:
You know, there is so much more to say about each of those four options. But I find it interesting how people base their decision on the basis of morality. You can say, 'I choose to believe because I want to be a better person,' or 'I don't need God because I am already a good person.' I find it interesting because Christianity is not about morality, it is merely an effect. It is not the cause. Christ did not come to make bad people good, He came to give life to the dead. Option A is the only way to gain life and life more abundant. You can never attain life by your works, just as the law and the Beatitudes tell us. When it comes to life, "he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
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