Happiness

Happiness is …..

By

B.D. Adams ©2015

M

y life has been a roller-coaster of emotions and situations. I have been elated with situations, which most people would be, and devastated by situations in the same manner.

    My grandchildren have been a definite source of happiness. Unfortunately, they and their father (my son) live in the Los Angeles area. He is a firefighter and has been so for several years. We visit via Skype, so I have the happiness to see my grandbabies grow-up in real time, sort of.

            Since my stroke in 1998, I have kept progressing, going forward. I have attended all the physical therapy, occupational therapy and psychological sessions I could stand. And, to date, I truly believe I have succeeded to grab the horns of disability as a true survivor!

            Unfortunately, as I have aged with my physical issues, it has become clearer to me that I need to accept the new changes with my body. Mostly my legs.

            Oh, boy … what else?

Daniel and I bought a scooter several years ago. A comfortably padded Pace Saver Plus III. A used one, but it has been a wonderful help as my legs have become less able to keep up with others. Assists mostly when we attend the large car shows that have acres of cars to see!

In the last year, or so, my legs have become … old. I had been able to walk our little dog, but then there has been more pain as I walk. And, I have hated that!

I began to take Sasha, our dog, for walks by using my scooter. She loves to ride on my scooter, but was a bit confused with this new “walking” method. However, it took no time for her to understand, as best as a dog can understand.

With the dog walking, the scooter was kept by the driveway. I would cautiously go down the few steps from our deck to the scooter.

Also, in that time, it has become harder just to walk in general. Like to walk from Daniel’s SUV into different stores like Walmart or Home Depot to access their scooters. So, with the help of a hitch-mounted scooter rack – on the SUV and the ’37 Plymouth Sedan – we take the scooter where we want. You learn how to adapt, improvise, overcome … like a Marine.

I never wanted to appear like a wimp! Independence has been paramount for me. I mean, what do we have if we don’t have our independence?

Well, as it goes, this last weekend, Daniel and a neighbor fellow built a ramp for my scooter to access our deck. It is a thing of beauty! They did a fabulous job.

Daniel rode the scooter up to the deck and let me take over. I rode it down and up a few times. This is my new usable toy, my independence.

Happiness is … whatever you want it to be.

To other disabled people, I would like to say:

“Keep progressing! Don’t give in to your disability – grab it by its horns and take it down. And, don’t hide from the outside! Who cares what others see. We have the pride that life does, indeed, go on. I can’t sing and dance, but I can write … and roll.

Photo by Dan Tourigny

Article -- Unthinkable

The Unthinkable

By

B.D. Adams ©2015

W

e really never try to think about the unthinkable, life’s trauma. Yesterday, another unhappy person – a man – used a gun to murder people in a college classroom! Most of who he had had no connection!

Personally, I have not had issues with people who own guns for hunting or just to do targets. However, when those tools become devices of anger and hate, I am a proponent for gun control!

            Then the NRA will scream, “What about the 2nd Amendment? It says right there ‘the right to bear arms.’”

            No argument there – it is in the Constitution, it is one of our fought for rights by our forefathers.

            When does the “right” make it right to kill people when a deranged person decides it is his or her right to kill because they feel they have the right to have a gun! Chew on that idea. And, it seems that many of the guns are purchased legally by law abiding citizens. Then mayhem happens when the weapons are in the hands of the “unhappy” people.

            Why? Why do the unhappy ones feel it is right to kill as many as they can because they feel they have the right? Why? Do they think about what they are doing or is it just mindless vomit spit out from their warped brains?

            It seems to be the trend for these murderers to target schoolrooms and any other place where people gather. Sickly, like shooting fish in a barrel.

            At Sandy Hook, a young man’s mother felt it was her right to own weapons that could hold off a barrage of home invaders. The young man felt the weapons gave him the right to mass murder elementary school children in their classroom. He made his mother the first in his bloody spree! 

            When I was 16 years old in Texas, Charles Whitman climbed up to the tower at the University of Texas in Austin and behaved as a sniper. This was in 1966. He murdered 16 people in the vicinity of the Texas campus tower. He himself was taken out by local police to end his mayhem. Also, before he took to the tower, he murdered his wife and mother. It was reported that Whitman was abused by his father, so he murdered 16 people who had no connection to him.

            Another mass murderer was Richard Speck. He murdered 8 student nurses in Chicago in 1966. Plus, Ted Bundy, one of the most heinous murderers of modern times. His victims were all women and his treatment of his victims proved that he hated women. However, he did not murder his mother, as others have done with theirs.

            Other than Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde fame, the numbers are far less for women than what is known for the above documented men murderers. That doesn’t give women the “right” to kill/murder any more than for men.

            There have been mass murderers through the ages. In some ways, it’s called war or political conflicts. There were the Mongolian Khans very early in the previous millennium, Vlad Tepes – better known as Dracula –, the Crusades did their murdering under the guise of religion, the Nazis and any other hate organization used whatever reason to kill/murder for their blood lust.

            If the murderers really wanted to be labeled with these other senseless jackals, I guess they got what they wanted.

            Murder is not glamorous or romantic! Why do these mass murderers have distorted views that the people they kill want to be taken out with them? Senseless.

The Oregon murders of this week are another reason to keep guns out of the reach of the disturbed and insane, people. How can this be implemented? I do not have an answer – wish I did. 

My heart goes out to the families of the victims of now and in the past. That has to be a pain that never really heals.

            It is senseless, so senseless for what these – and I use the term loosely – people do to others. Some might view me as unsympathetic to the disturbed murderers. Well, I have to plead guilty. Since these “people” are not stable and have access to objects to murder others, how does that give them the right to murder others when they are unhappy -- to leash out against people they don’t know or have not done horrible things to them!

Suicide is senseless, but to cause the deaths of other people with his or her reasons – which are no real reasons -- is unthinkable!