GOOD ON ALL OF YOU'S.... PRAYERS FOR YOUR FAMILY

MIKE SAID: "I know that you wish you were me and your mom was still here."

NO, NO, NO & NO.  I DON'T WISH I WERE YOU & I MOST CERTAINLY DON'T WISH MOM WAS STILL HERE... NOT BY A LONNNNNNNNG SHOT.  COUNTLESS TIMES A DAY I THANK GOD SHE'S NOT HERE TO SEE THE COUNTRY SHE ONCE KNEW, TURNING INTO A WASTELAND THAT HAS TURNED IT'S BACK ON THE GOOD LORD.  ONCE THE DEVIL GETS CONTROL OF ANYONE OR ANYTHING... IT'S A GIVEN THAT CHAOS WILL OVERWHELM EVERYTHING.  THE GOOD LORD IS THE ONLY WAY OUT OF IT. HE IS THE SUPREME "COMMANDER IN CHIEF".  HE WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

ENJOY YOUR DAD... GIVE HIM A HUG FOR ME.

That's great, Jean.

My wife is the opposite. It took her a year to get over her mom's death and she still isn't over it 2 years later. 

She used to talk to her every evening on the way home and for many months, on the way home she would think about that every time. 

I'll be more like you, though. 

This is part of why i put in extra time.

1. Because Dad deserves it. He gave us everything raising us and I wouldn't be here or who i am without him.

2. When he dies, I can't go back and i don't want to feel that I didn't do my best to repay him. I busted my butt to devote thousands of hours to make our mom feel loved and happy as a grown adult, even though she was mentally ill and pretty abusive while raising us. This helped greatly to heal her........and i couldn't feel better about any of my accomplishments.

#2 is a principle that we should all consider when taking actions. We should ask ourselves this question,  when making decisions.

In a year and beyond, will I be proud of making this decision, especially if its one that I can never go back and reverse?

If the answer is no or not sure, then doing the opposite is usually best!

Most of the time, people decide things based of factors of RIGHT NOW and emotions, convenience and ego play into it too much.

This sounds like a crazy example but Joe Biden trying to hang on to power is a great example.

His ego, selfishness, emotions, distorted interpretations based on what HE WISHES WERE true are apparently ruling over his ability to objectively see the  future.

What will his legacy be like in a year+ after staying in and LOSING THE ELECTION?

What will be the fate of the D party be after they lose in November with him at the top of the ticket?

His failure to think about those FUTURE things that are extremely likely is why he clings to the wrong decision using the right now, WRONG things.

In his case, one can make a case for his cognitive impairment to make good future decisions as being a significant if not the entire reason. 

There is a near 0% chance of the Ds strongly uniting for him in November.  It's going the complete opposite way in an overwhelmingly convincing........and has been for weeks but somehow, he's unable to grasp the reality.

And this is HIS decision. Make no mistake, Joe Biden decides if Joe Biden runs because Joe Biden got all the D delegates using the legal process. 

And its Joe Biden that is causing ALL the division and chaos in the D party right now. He alone could have ....should have ended it just by contemplating what will happen AFTER HE LOSES. 

Really bad things to the Ds and his legacy.

If Biden should remain, which seems almost impossible for me to imagine, then on July 20, 2025, with President Trump in office and in fact FOREVER, Biden will have to face what he did to the Ds in the 2024 election. 

This would go down in history as an unprecedented, really bad decision that Biden will be known for more than anything else in his 50 year career. 

Maybe Joe realizes that Kamala is not qualified to be president?

Or that any of the other people replacing him are not as qualifies as he once was?

ONCE WAS are the operative words.

MIKE SAID: "My wife is the opposite. It took her a year to get over her mom's death and she still isn't over it 2 years later.

She used to talk to her every evening on the way home and for many months, on the way home she would think about that every time." GOOD FOR HER!

"I'll be more like you, though." I KINDA, SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT... YOU'D NEED A HUGE HEART / SOUL / MIND CHANGER FOR THAT TO HAPPEN... IMO.  

THERE IS NOT A DAY THAT'S GONE BY THAT MOM HAS LEFT MY MIND, HEART & SOUL. DAILY, I THINK OF CALLING HER... WALKING OVER TO VISIT HER... WANTING TO TAKE HER TO LUNCH, GO FOR A DRIVE, ETC.ETC.ETC.  I STILL OCCASIONALLY HEAD FOR THE PHONE TO CALL MY GRANDMA... SHE DIED IN 1980....

WHEN A PERSON TRULY LOVES SOMEONE... THAT NEVER STOPS. TO FORGET THEM, SHOWS THE LACK OF THE DEEP CAPABILITIES NEEDED TO BE ABLE TO LOVE LIKE THAT.

KINDA LIKE: GOOD DEEDS WON'T GET A SOUL THRU THOSE GATES.

Thanks, Jean,

I can tell you really cared about your mom!

Nonsense.  Apparently your Mom was a good person, as was my Mom.  The world needs good people.  Don't ever give up on being good and being a positive force in the world.  

If your Mom never got on social media, she would have a totally different outlook on life.  She would be with her children and happy.

Enjoy the chess matches Mike.  :)

Thanks, Jim.

Playing many hundreds of chess games with my dad in the last decade has provided a profound learning experience for me about the human brain in old age.

We know that certain types of thinking is done by specific parts of the brain and my lesson has been with regards to the magnitude of the difference in the rate of degradation for different parts of the brain.

I knew this was true before but my real life experience has witnessed it in profound fashion.

We know that analytical thinking for chess playing, doing math problems, looking at commodity price charts/fundamentals all comes from a unique part of the brain.

Other functions are controlled by other parts of the brain.......even though they must all work together to some degree.

Dad has been slowly losing his physical abilities..........now confined to a wheel chair and most of his cognitive functions have greatly deteriorated too.

One would guess that a person like this, that can't remember what they ate for breakfast and do other things that  any young person can do, even on their worst days.....would no longer be able to do a higher order of analytical thinking required to play chess..........seeing the complicated relationship between the pieces and project out several moves on both sides.  BUT HE CAN and on good days, about as well as 10 years ago!

He will sometime make NON analytical mistakes, like trying to move MY piece instead of his. Or moving A piece on the wrong diagonal which is something a beginning young child might do.

But at the same time, his brain is comprehending and applying a brilliant winning strategy using the principles of successful chess playing!

On his good days, that is.

THANKS, JIM!!! 

MOM REALLY LOVED US 3 GIRLS.  WE WERE ALL 3 SO DIFFERENT FROM ONE ANOTHER. THERE'S 20 MONTHS BETWEEN EACH OF US. I'M THE YOUNGEST.  MY MIDDLE SISTER  DIED 3 YEARS AGO @ 73.  SHE WAS A WILD ONE. WE LIVED LESS THAN 20 MILES APART & HADN'T EVEN TALKED FOR 25 YEARS. YES, I STILL LOVED HER, DEARLY, BUT........  HER GIRLS TOLD ME THAT FOR HER FINAL 14 HOURS, ALL SHE KEPT SAYING WAS: "YOUR AUNT JEAN", OVER & OVER & OVER.  THAT TOLD ME... THE GOOD LORD SAVED HER. 

________________________________________________________

MY OLDEST SISTER JUST TURNED 78.  SHE COULD LIVE WITH A BOOK IN HER FACE 24/7.  LOL   I'LL BE 75, PRETTY SOON.  SINCE MY DEBILITATING STROKE, SHE & I HAVE GOTTEN "CLOSER" THEN WE EVER WERE.  LOL (GEE, MAYBE, I SHOULDA HAD THAT STROKE 14 YEARS AGO, INSTEAD OF 4 YEARS AGO)..  LOL

MOM LOVED TO SING (SHE WAS A COUNTRY WESTERN SINGER WHEN SHE WAS IN HER EARLY 20'S. I'VE STILL GOT SOME OF HER HOME-CUT RECORDS OF HER & HER SINGING PARTNER.  MINNIE PEARL WANTED BOTH OF THEM, BUT... NOT TOGETHER. THEY WOULDN'T SPLIT UP, SOOOO... THEY TOLD MINNIE: "THANKS, BUT... NO THANKS." (SHE & I SANG AT A LOCAL CLUB, ONE NIGHT.  SHE WAS IN ALL HER GLORY!)  THE CROWD OF 250 - 300,  JUST LOVED HER!!  LOL   I PLAYED HER OLD GUITAR...SHE WAS SOOOO PROUD.  SHE GAVE ME HER GUITAR, FOR MY 40TH BIRTHDAY. THEY SURE DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THEY USED TO. A BIG "F" ARCH TOP.  I'LL HAVE THAT 'TIL THE DAY I DIE...POST STROKE,  I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO PLAY IT & I REALLY MISS THAT PART OF MY LIFE.

AND, LIFE GOES ON UNTIL IT DOESN'T

 _____________________________  

 MOM WANTED NO PART OF SOCIAL MEDIA, OR THE COMPUTER.  LOL I'D HAVE HER COME OVER TO MY HOUSE (I SPLIT AN ACRE OFF OF MY 5 ACRES & SHE BUILT HER HOME THERE) & SHE'D LISTEN TO THE SINGERS ON A KARAOKE SITE I'M A MEMBER OF.  SHE REALLY LOVED LISTENING TO ALL THE DIFFERENT SINGERS & SHE'D SING RIGHT ALONG WITH 'EM....EVEN AT THE AGE OF 80. I WANTED TO GET HER USED TO IT & THEN, I WANTED HER TO SING ON IT... BUT......HER LIFE TOOK A DRAMATIC TURN & I NEVER GOT HER SINGING ON THAT KARAOKE SITE. :- (

MOM DIED IN 2013 & SHE'S NEVER LEFT MY MIND, HEART OR SOUL... SHE'S WITH ME 24/7/365...  YEP, HER SINGING PARTNER CAME TO HER MEMORIAL.   SHE DIED, 4 YEARS AGO.

THANKS. JIM.. I NEEDED THAT.

BIG HUGS

Thanks for sharing that, Jean!
I didn’t know that you played the guitar before your stroke.

Do you do much singing at home today?

my wife, Deb has always loved singing. That’s one way that I can tell if she’s happy or not.

On my way back home today!

Headed back to Detroit on Friday, August 9th  for several days.

On my way back to Evansville, IN after another great visit with my almost 99 year old Dad!