FOR THOSE WHO ARE IGNORANT OF HISTORY

"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907)

by

Gustav Klimt

I typically steer clear of movies set in Nazi era Germany. I have seen so many of them over the years, that I just can't bear to be reminded once more of that horrible time when the world descended into the madness of primitive impulses and allowed the personification of evil to rise to power and then commit heinous crimes against the Jews and, to a lesser degree, human beings who were designated as "other."

The movie WOMAN IN GOLD was an exception. I chose to watch it last night because it was about the return of artworks stolen by the Nazis. It is based on the true story of Maria Altmann and her attorney Randy Schoenberg who spent years attempting to gain the return of stolen pieces of art, including this wonderful painting. I love art. Gustav Klimt is one of my very favorite artists and THIS particular painting, above, which was renamed WOMAN IN GOLD by post-war Austrians, (perhaps intending to hide its provenance) is one of my favorite paintings.

This painting was a portrait of Maria Altmann's aunt and was one of a household full of precious objects that the Nazis stole from the home of Maria's parents, while the family was forced to sit and watch. The family had arrived in Austria with nothing, but they worked hard and strove to improve their fortunes, and they succeeded. Watching all their hard earned possessions being cataloged and then hauled away by those filthy Nazis must have been gut wrenching. The loss of this particular painting must have been the source of much sorrow by that family, not because it is a masterpiece, but because it was a painting of a beloved family member.

If you are interested in this topic, you may find an article about the return of these paintings at this LINK TO ARTICLE ABOUT RETURN OF ART STOLEN BY NAZIS

Something that Helen Mirren says in her portrayal of Maria Altmann really struck me. After fighting with the Austrians for years for the return of the stolen art works, she finally admits to herself and to her attorney that the Austrians had always been like this. After all, when the Nazis triumphantly paraded through town, the non-Jewish Austrians "threw flowers" on them, welcomed them, and later participated with glee in the multiple humiliations and, ultimately, the removal and deaths of their Jewish neighbors.

Here is a video of Austrian residents welcoming the Nazi soldiers to their town at this LINK TO VIDEO OF GERMAN SOLDIERS BEING WELCOMED BY AUSTRIANS..

Currently, we have a wave of antisemitism happening in America in which Jewish places of worship and cemeteries are being vandalized, and multiple bomb threats have been made. Nazi symbols have been spray painted. Frequently, Donald Trump's name is invoked as a badge of license.

It isn't that Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don't believe he is, but Donald Trump, and his rhetoric of hate towards immigrants ("the other") has inflamed the dormant Nazis and similar groups, such as the KKK (which has lent Trump their stamp of approval.)

Trump's brand of hatred and division emboldens all of those people that bear hatred toward anyone different than themselves. The Jews are not the only groups that are currently experiencing a steep uptick in hate crimes. Those who are different from the whites who hold power are being subjected to violence. Just within the last few days, an Indian (not a Muslim) was shot in the arm and told to go back to his country where he came from.

A Sikh, wearing a modern turban

(NOT a Muslim!)

Part of the problem with the people who are inflamed by Donald Trump style rhetoric is that they are ignorant and uneducated about the variety of people that live on this planet. Anyone who wears a turban is wrongly identified as a Muslim (against whom Trump IS encouraging some prejudice.) Actually, Muslims do not typically wear turbans, but ignorant people, fueled by Trump's movements against the Muslims, are targeting anyone who is wearing a Turban! Ridiculous.

Hitler gained power by appealing to the fears of the people. He set up a scape goat to blame (the Jews) and simply fed the flames of hatred that were ignited in the hearts of the people who wanted a change in their country. Without the help of non-Jews, he could not have risen to power.

Hitler used lies as his primary tool, directed the hatred of the people against Jews as the scape goats, suppressed the press and replaced it with his propaganda productions. He used the Austrian people to help him steal a massive amount of wealth from a segment of the population and then killed the owners of that wealth in gruesome, horrific and humiliating fashion. Many Jews tried to leave the country, but were prevented. Hitler couldn't afford to have living witnesses wandering around the world, "telling tales." In order to accomplish his true aims, power and money, he had to kill them, and that is exactly what he did, brutally exterminating millions of people.

Why am I drawing an obvious parallel between Hitler and Trump? That's simple. Trump's speech and behavior mimics that of Hitler to a "tee." "Alternative facts" (lies), scapegoating "the other" (immigrants), suppressing the free press (calling it "the enemy of the American people") and using a wide variety of disinformation and misinformation to confuse the population are all measures Hitler used himself.

Here is an article that reminds us of the history behind the term "enemy of the people" that Trump has been using against the press: READ THE WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE ABOUT "ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE" HERE.

While Trump calls the American press "fake news," Hitler called the press "Lügenpresse," which means "lying press." During Trump campaign rallies, Trump supporters have yelled this German word, resurrecting the memory of Hitler in the minds of many.

Here are some articles that remind us of Hitler's attack against the press that tried to warn the people against him:

The ugly history of ‘Lügenpresse,’ a Nazi slur shouted at a Trump rally - Washington Post

Donald Trump Channels Adolf Hitler to Attack the ‘Lying’ Press - PoliticusUSA

Like Donald Trump's phrases of "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," and "AMERICA FIRST," Hitler made liberal use of similar propaganda.

One of Hitler's propaganda posters reads

TO LOVE DEUTCHLAND (Germany)

Claiming that his executive orders to stop travel between the U.S.A. and certain predominantly Muslim countries "will not be questioned" asserted a dictator's typical stance; that he is the ultimate authority and holder of power and that anyone who questions him will be eliminated. He DID fire some people who questioned him and is so paranoid about surrounding himself only with people who buy into his conspiracy theory, lunatic fringe philosophy that there are more than 500 key positions that have yet to be filled. None of these positions require Senate approval. He simply has to HIRE these and several thousand others, but it is the 500 something that are crucial. Many people WON'T work with him, and we have heard news, now and then, of people who declined Trump's offers of employment.

While the lunative fringe constantly criticized Obama's every move, including the expense of his travel, Donald Trump has cost us more in one month than Obama did in an entire year. For one thing, Trump is living as if the White House is his office, spending almost every weekend at his country club in Florida. All this travel back and forth, for himself and his family, including overseas travel for various family members, has cost us 11.3 MILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE MONTH, and the same people who complained about Obama's spending (12.1 MILLION FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR) are SILENT on Mein Trumph's spending that far exceeds Obama's. Hypocrites! The following are some links that discuss this:

Trump on track to spend exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars on travels By one estimate the president has already rung up as much in travel costs as the Obama and Biden families did in eight years – all at the expense of taxpayers - The Guardian

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Trips So Far May Have Cost Taxpayers Up To $10 Million - Fortune.com

Trump’s first month of travel expenses cost taxpayers just less than what Obama spent in a year

Conservative activists refuse to believe Trump is spending more on travel than Obama

Why the Trumps' Travel Expenses Matter - The Atlantic

The Trump family's lavish lifestyle is costing taxpayers a fortune

Last night I fell asleep in my recliner. I made myself a cup of tea and said to myself, "I'll just have this nice soothing cup of tea and then I'll go to bed." I woke at 10:30 in the morning, with the television still churning out this nauseating daily horror of truly weird news. Trump has tweeted definitively that Obama arranged to have Trump wire tapped. Here is a copy of the tweet:

"How low has President Obama
gone to tapp my phones during
the very sacred election process.
This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad
(or sick) guy!"

His cohorts are demanding that, while Trump's ties to Russia are being investigated, they have to investigate Obama's supposed overstep of his power by ordering wire tapping.

Those who would know have stated categorically that there has never been a wire tapping warrant for Trump or Trump Tower. Trump is so ignorant of the workings of the government that he STILL does not realize that the President is not a King and that there is a system of checks and balances in our government that has frustrated many a president. As it happens, in this case, the President does not have the power to order a wire tapping warrant. Representatives of Obama's team have also confirmed that none of them authorized or ordered any wire tapping against any American citizen. Read the following links:

Trump's baseless wiretap claim - CNN - includes video clip

Earnest: It May 'Come As Some Surprise' To Trump That Prez Can't Order Wiretap - Talking Points Memo

White House calls for probe of Trump's unsubstantiated claims as Obama spy official denies wiretap

White House, still offering no evidence, demands probe of whether Obama abused executive power - Los Angeles Times

Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim - The New York Times

Trump’s charge that he was wiretapped takes presidency into new territory - The Washington Post

No one knows where Trump is getting his ideas because he refuses to tell us his source of information, nor will he provide any evidence of this or any other bat poop crazy assertion he has made, such as the 3 to 5 million people that he says voted illegally in the last election. No proof. He demands that everyone believe him and ACT on his crazy ideas. He has made it clear that it is the job of everyone else to prove that he is wrong, which is backwards, of course.

On the heels of the numerous discoveries of Russian ties to the Trump administration, including lies about meetings with the Russian ambassador, Trump has sent out one of his outrageous tweets, making accusations that are similar to other accusations that he has issued in the past, when the news cycle wasn't flattering to him. Former White House Secretary comments on this:

Former WH Press Secretary On Trump: 'The Bigger The Scandal, The More Outrageous The Tweet' - VIDEO included

Meanwhile, Mein Trumph's sycophants believe whatever he says and repeat it back to other people. I've seen it on social media. Crazy, unproven, illogical and highly improbable ideas that violate every FACT that I know are being broadcast by people who are pitifully ignorant and, evidently, too lazy to read a book or a newspaper or a legitimate source of solid information. Either that, or they simply wish to believe what Mein Trumph tells them because it dovetails with their own internal bigotry. Fringy, conspiracy theory rags that are created, whole cloth, out of an ideological world view rather than facts about things that HAPPEN, continually fan the flames. This is exactly what happened when Hitler came to power.

My gut instinct is that Trumps charges are fantasies created by a sick and aging mind that cannot tell the difference between paranoid imaginings and truth. Someone or some people are feeding off his mental illness and are using him as the figurehead for a movement to dismantle our democratic system and put something else in its place. We have already seen the beginnings of this in the nomination of people to department posts whose history has been one of hostility toward those departments and agencies. I've dealt with this in other posts.

I am old, disabled and poor. I can do nothing about the coming catastrophe except to try and alert people to the danger of what will happen if we do not put a stop to this insanity. There is a man in the White House who has no business being there. He's brought the lunatic asylum with him and installed them in positions of power over agencies they've fought against their whole adult lives.

At the very LEAST, I would hope that people will be incited to educate themselves about our government, our history, and how the American democracy works; not in a GENERAL way, but the specific, tedious facts. Most of what Trump says is disproved by history and the facts around the workings of our system. Don't throw flowers on this monster. Arm yourselves with knowledge.

As an interesting side note, I tried to

God save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

FATIMA, RUSSIA, AND DONALD TRUMP

Jeff Sessions, swearing to tell the truth

Just when I thought I could settle into the routine of my daily life, a fresh horror presents itself that, frankly, needs the attention of every American.

Last night the news broke. Jefferson Sessions, in his Senate hearings, emphatically claimed that he never met with any Russians during the Trump campaign. It turns out he lied. He met twice with the Ambassador of Russia. One meeting was public. The next was a private meeting, in Sessions' office.

Sessions now claims he didn't lie because he met with the Ambassador in his capacity as a senator, but that is not what he said in his hearing. He said he had NO meetings when he answered questions from Senator Franken.

There is a reason why our Lady asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. There are some who are claiming that this consecration didn't happen in the proper way and therefore didn't meet the instructions of our Blessed Mother. I can't make a comment about that. I don't presume to know her mind. I DO know that the Fatima "miracle of the sun" was witnessed by more than 70,000 people, including newspaper reporters, that there are photographs of the people and the sun that appeared in the newspapers, and that this miracle was forewarned for the specific date and time that it was going to happen. This is one series of apparitions that simply cannot be discounted and explained away.

It has been almost exactly 100 years since the first apparitions at Fatima to the three children, and we find ourselves up to our elbows in scandal about Russian interference with American democracy, and a president and his staff who can't seem to tell the truth when it really counts. The Russian elephant in the room is getting bigger and bigger, and I keep thinking about our Lady's concern about Russia and the peculiar timing.

I watched tonight various clips of Donald Trump, over the years. First, he is bragging about his relationship with Putin, then he claims he never met the man. There were many clips, and in each one he makes a different claim. Currently, he is claiming he's never met the man. Who knows the truth? Only the Lord...and 17 different intelligence agencies.

Politicians, in general, have the reputation for lying, with a few notable exceptions that prove the rule. We have become used to it, except that the type, nature and topic of the lies coming out of this White House are blaringly hot, pants-on-fire alarming.

Something which did not make a big splash in the news, but which I find equally stunning, is that Wilbur Ross, the new Secretary of Commerce, is part owner of CYPRESS BANK, where Russian mafia launders its money, and where Putin and other Russian Oligarchs funnel money back and forth with America.

At this point, Donald Trump has a cabinet that is stuffed with billionaires who either have explicit financial ties with Russia, or who have spent their lives working against the very departments over which they have been put in charge! Betsy de Vos, another Trust Fund baby like Donald Trump, has spent her whole adult life funding a movement to eliminate the Department of Education, of which she is now in charge. The new head of the EPA has spent his whole working career as CEO of EXON, which has 68 million acres of land in Russia that they cannot drill until the sanctions are lifted. Oh...and he has also sued the EPA multiple times in an effort to get the regulations lifted. Trump's right hand man, Steve Bannon, another person with no government experience, has been quoted in the past as saying that his aim is to destroy the entire government edifice in America and that he admires Lenin for doing that in HIS country.

Trump's son has previously boasted that Russian money has come "pouring into" the Trump businesses. It is easy to see that, due to Trump's numerous bankruptcies and his well known inability to make a success of any business, that none of the American banks would lend him money. He probably HAD to go to Russia, and now they have him over a barrel.  Just speculating here, but it is a likely scenario. Did the Commerce Secretary get that job as partial payment for loaning Trump money from CYPRESS BANK?

What is NOT speculation is that 17 intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russia DID hack into our computer systems in an effort to defeat Hilary Clinton. The news reached the Obama White House, and Obama and his team made sure that this information was documented in such a way that the incoming Trump team could not make it disappear. During that time, when everyone on the Hill knew that contact with Russia was a problem, Jeff Sessions met with the Ambassador to Russia...and didn't remember it...but said he definitely did not discuss campaign matters...or something.

How much more information do you need to see into the future plans of Trump and his gang? This is the plan, as I see it: Destabilize the government to loosen all protections for America in order to accomplish some sort of deal with Russia that is going to financially benefit the billionaires, the banks they own, and the oil and gas companies with which they have ties. Trump has never been a charitable guy. In fact, he has, on several occasions, figured out how to get credit for OTHER people's charitable contributions, while putting none of his own money on the line.  So, why did Trump want to become president at age 70? Did he have a vision? Did an angel visit him and tell him to do it? Or is he just pursuing the next big deal?

Remember - just about all his businesses went into bankruptcy, and the only reason he had any money to begin with was because he INHERITED it. He isn't a "successful businessman" and never has been. Like everything else in Trump's life, it is all a lie. His income source in these later years is almost exclusively from adding his name to the work of OTHER people - other people's buildings and golf courses and country clubs. Even now, he is taking credit for the achievements of the LAST president, whose policies have resulted in an unemployment rate sinking from 10.5 percent to about 4.5 percent.

My writing skills do not veer in the direction of journalism. I advise you to do what I have done. Read everything you can get your hands on, watch EVERY news channel, and then PRAY and FAST. The fate of our country, the fate of American democracy, is at stake. I am not overstating the case. I am not an alarmist. I typically do not care much about politics, except to the degree that political decisions hurt the poor. If left unchecked, this flow of events will lead to much more than just an increase in the number of poor people in our country.

I can see that America will look like Russia before long if we don't put the brakes on. I don't want to be right about this. Please pray and fast for freedom from Russian aggression and American cooperation with it.

Silver Rose

MEDITATION FOR LENT - THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

Carmelite nun, praying in her cell

When I was young and writing for television, I used to see a lot of movies. It was part of the job to stay abreast of what was being made, and it was a good method of keeping the writing chops honed. I used to love French films because they didn't usually have a convenient sweet ending that tied up all the loose ends. The boy didn't always get the girl. The business venture did not always work out. Sometimes the hero ended up poor and disheveled at the fag end of his life. Most of the actors and actresses also looked like real people, rather than genetic marvels. The films were, in my estimation, more real, more authentic, than American films and television.

For the most part, we have a formula for American films in which there is usually a feel good "happy ending." There are a few remarkable exceptions to this rule, such as THELMA AND LOUISE and GRAN TORINO, both of which are examples of really fine films that have a considerable edge to them. Even at that, however, the protagonists in both these films "win" in the end, leaving us with a  satisfying feeling, albeit tinged with a bit of sadness. Bittersweet.

The American formula for films and television reflects the American ideal of the "right" to pursue happiness. It is what our country was founded upon. While happiness is a good thing, it is a pathetic goal, when you think about it. There is nothing grand in it. On the face of it, it is a narcissistic goal, but it is a goal that many people I've encountered in life have swallowed.

When I was in the Hindu convent, the purpose of life was to get oneself to a state of "realization of God." Taking anyone else along with you wasn't a focus and, although the occasional feeding of the poor was practiced, the goal was a solitary one. It was selfish at its heart, and this is what disenchanted me about the Vedanta philosophy, in the end.

A Mormon relative once said to me that "the purpose of life is to have as many fun experiences as possible," to which I replied that the purpose of life is get yourself, your family and your neighbor to heaven. It just popped out of my mouth, but I now realize that this is the profound difference between Catholicism and many other religions and philosophies.

The Catholic faith is like those French films I enjoyed when young. It is real. It is authentic. It doesn't promote the rainbows and bubble gum Jesus to whom so many people cling. It doesn't promise a happy life or wealth or "prosperity" because Jesus didn't promise those things. He promised the cross and the sword. Later, we enjoy the bliss of living with our heavenly father for eternity, provided that we follow his commandments, especially the two that he most emphasized.

"Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy

God, with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and

with all thy mind. This is the first and great

commandment. And the second is like unto it,

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On

these two commandments hang all the law and

the prophets."

~ Matthew 22:37-40 ~

These greatest of commandments points away from oneself and toward God and neighbor, going so far as to decree that we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. In an era when conservative Catholics are promoting the idea that we all have the right to pursue success but the poor do not have the right to live as well as others, it is clear that we have lost our way, but what can I do about that, aside from mentioning it in my blog?

My meditation for this Lent will concentrate on what Jesus said are the two most important commandments. I plan to put this scripture passage before my eyes every day during the lectio divina portion of my prayers, and I will endeavor to listen to what the Lord has to say to me about these greatest of all commandments and how I may better practice them in my life.

What will YOU do for lent?

Silver Rose Parnell
Copyright (c) 2017
All rights reserved.

CHECKING OUT FOR LENT

This year, I would like to try to withdraw a bit for Lent. Recent news has had me jangled, alarmed and shouting warnings from the rooftops. Now it is time to cuddle up with God and see if I can purify and calm myself. It may be more difficult this year, with all the giant machinery tearing up the roads outside my window, but I will just have to regard it as another penance.

Friends are giving up various things for Lent. One friend tells me she is giving up desert. Another is giving up music in the car, which is interesting because, for me, music in the car would be torture. It is too much stimulation for an activity that, for me, requires all my concentration.

Catholics are actually required to do specific things during Lent, unless they are under age 14 or are sick with something that will be affected adversely by fasting. There is an upper age limit also. I think it is 62, but I am not sure. I AM one of those people that fall into the illness category. I'm also too poor to have much control over what kind of food comes into the house, but I will do my best to get as close as possible to the rules.

Those wishing to refresh themselves on the rules, can read this handy ARTICLE.

One thing we are told to do is pray more. I plan to do that. Consequently, another reason not to write my blog during the Lenten fast. Instead of blabbing, I am going to spend time listening...to the Lord.

Lent doesn't start until March 1st, but I want to get ready for it: stock the pantry with the appropriate foods, find my Lenten reading materials, etc.

I hope you have a beautiful and fruitful Lent.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose Parnell
Copyright (c) 2017

GOD BRINGS ALL THINGS TO THE GOOD FOR THOSE THAT BELIEVE

About halfway through the month, I typically run low on food. There are things to eat in the cupboard, but I have to be creative sometimes, and I often have to eat things I'm not particularly keen to have at that moment. I liken it to a type of perpetual fasting and, in that light, it becomes a blessing. Fasting as a method of sacrificing the ego, its will, and its constant need to be fed, enables one to grow closer to God. It has been continually advocated in the Judeo Christian world, as well as in other religions, for thousands of years. God brings all things to the good for those that believe - even when something looks bad at the outset  - even when something is uncomfortable or downright painful.

Tonight I was pondering dinner, when I noticed that I have a lot of half-and-half leftover, as I have reduced my consumption of tea over the last few months. Calculating that the half-and-half was going to go bad before I could use it all if I only used it for tea, I realized that I also had the other items necessary to make alfredo sauce with chopped walnuts. Sunday dinner was delicious. Another thing brought to the good that, on the outset, appeared to be somewhat sad.

If I stop to complain about whatever is going wrong, I may miss the good that the Lord wants to bring out of it and into my life. If I look at the deceptively empty refrigerator and become focused on THAT, it may never occur to me to become creative and make a masterpiece.

The last five years or so have been rough and getting rougher. Someone had me written out of my father's will after he got Alzheimer's. My father died, my uncle died, my son died, my dog died, my cat died. My relationship to the church I loved was destroyed by a callow young priest who ridiculed my weight in front of a group of people, pantomiming how funny it would be if he couldn't pull me out of a chair because my bottom is so big. He disparaged my disability status. He went on to harass me every time he got me alone, and I had to leave the church - the only Byzantine Church in New Mexico. My health has gotten worse and my illnesses have multiplied. Among other things, I am going blind, very slowly, from macular degeneration. My inability to find an appropriate place to live has been documented in other blog posts.

When I became disabled, friends of many years dropped me immediately. The few family who had the resources to help me picked a fight or found some bogus "reason" to be angry with me, giving themselves an excuse not to behave like the Christians they claim to be. They say that family is all one can count on, but but some families are not good. Some families hate God and goodness, living only for their own comfort.

It may never become apparent to me exactly what sort of good the Lord plans to bring out of all this pain. The good may not be realized during my lifetime. It may never make sense to me. It may never make sense to you, but sometime before my story comes to a close, I need to send out a reassuring message, and that is simply this: The Lord is bringing all these things to the good - for me and for others.

This is the blessing of living the Catholic faith, being a member of the church founded by Jesus - even if some of the priests are horridly broken and cruel people - even though I cannot get anyone from the bishop's office to return my phone calls about my vocation - even though our dear Papa is sometimes hard to understand - even though family and friends have left me twisting, by myself, at the end of a short rope - even though I have been suffering continuous pain FOR YEARS. I am being blessed.

Some people mistakenly believe that if we live the Christian faith well, Jesus will reward us with a comfortable life. That is not what he promised. This is what He said:

"Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth:

I came not to send peace, but the sword.

For I came to set a man at variance against his father,

and the daughter against her mother,

and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's enemies are they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than me, 

is not worthy of me;

and he that loveth son or daughter more than me,

is not worthy of me.

And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth

me, is not worthy of me."

Matthew 10: 34-38

Christianity is the hardest gig you will ever do. It isn't rainbows, lollipops and unicorns, as some people believe. It isn't warm and cuddly. It isn't about prosperity. It is the sword and the cross, just as Jesus promised.

May we all be blessed.

Silver Rose Parnell

Copyright (c) 2017

All rights reserved.

DONALD TRUMP DISMANTLES GOVERNMENT AND THE PLANET WHILE HIS FANS CHEER

Donald Trump (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise )

Scott Pruitt, who disputes the reality of climate change, despite the science that says otherwise, and in contradiction to the majority of the scientific community; who has spent many years of his career fighting the EPA and its regulations that are necessary to the preservation of clean water and air and life on earth as we know it, has been picked by Donald Trump to head that very same agency.

Ben Carson, a surgeon with no administrative experience, no government experience, and no applicable education, has been tagged to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His ideology is hostile to the poor, whose interests he is supposed to serve in his capacity as head of this department.

Betsy de Vos was made the Secretary of Education. She is a billionaire heiress with no experience in education whatsoever, who has spent tremendous amounts of money in an effort to abolish the public school system and turn it into a voucher system for privately owned schools. Betsy herself has never attended a public school, and neither have her children. She is an elder in the "Christian Reformed Church" which holds a Calvinist theology.

The most alarming appointment, Chief political strategist Steve Bannon, has declared himself a Leninist. Of his political viewpoint, Bannon once said:

"Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that's my goal too. I want to bring

 everything crashing down and destroy all of today's establishment."

 ~ Steve Bannon  (SEE: THIS ARTICLE)

These are but A FEW of the incredible collection of billionaires Trump has begun to collect around himself; billionaires who are the opposite of the common man that voted him into office, and whose interests are the opposite of the common man. 

When you add up the fact that Trump's nominations, in the main, are people who have a long term antagonism toward the mission of the departments which Trump wants them to head, with the fact that Trump's primary political strategist is a Leninist who wants to tear down the government, and the added fact that they are all billionaires, all of us should be very very worried.

What will be left when Trump and his billionaire cronies destroy American democracy? Think about Cuba, where everyone is poor except the dictator and his cronies.

Trump's representatives have already begun to speak as if he is a dictator. 

“Our opponents, the media and the whole world 

will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, 

that the powers of the president to protect our 

country are very substantial and will not be questioned,” 

~ Stephen Miller, Trump's Senior Policy Director

It has become apparent, through comments made by Trump and his surrogates, that he is either ignorant of or dismissive of our government's system of checks and balances and he intends to behave as a king or dictator, rather than a part of a system into which he has been inserted.

God save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

Copyright (c) 2017

All rights reserved.

THERE IS NO CASTE SYSTEM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I am blessed to have some extremely pious, devoted and intelligent Catholic friends. One of them is Mary Hammond, whose recent Facebook post clearly articulates the Truth of a truly pro-life point of view that I have been trying to write but which has eluded me.

With her permission, I am copying her words here. Thank you, Mary, for letting me do this, and thank you for your heart-felt words.

Who Is Worthy?

When last October, Fr. Pavone answered my objection to Donald Trump's anti refugee and anti immigration stance with his view that American babies dying in American clinics should come before Syrian babies dying from bombings or drownings because abortion of the most vulnerable was the greatest evil, he unwittingly defined my entire objection to his brand of "pro life" and opened a new avenue for pro euthanasia advocates to follow.

Why? Because he created a "class" of persons set apart from the rest.

The Church does tell us we need to defend those who are most vulnerable, or the weakest. But in her wisdom she did not create classes of these and rank them for us. What does the Church say?

"CC 2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being."

Father Pavone and "the old guard pro life" have most of the sentence correct. It's that sticky last part he eliminates from the discussion: "like any other human being".

One of the concerns of anti euthanasia activists is that euthanasia will be used to clear out, if you will, those persons defined on a secular basis of being no longer able to contribute meaningfully to society. Which really means nothing more than they will not be working and paying taxes.

But secular aside, Catholics should be more concerned with the creation of classes in society by some pro life activists - the reason being is God does no such thing.

It is theologically incorrect to state that unborn children being aborted in America are deserving of more help and attention than unborn children being bombed or starved in Syria because abortion in the womb is worse than being bombed in the womb. Does God make these distinctions? No. Does the Church really, actually, make that distinction? No. Father Pavone makes that distinction and he is wrong.

And his view can also over take the anti euthanasia movement if supporters of Pavone's peculiar theology apply it to euthanasia.

God is not petty. He does not operate on some weird value system making one unborn child more deserving of help than another unborn child based on which type of unjust death they are dying.
One wonders if, in the March For Life, mothers holding signs really believe their born children are not as worthy of life defense as the unborn child. When pregnant, do mothers view their older children as less deserving of assistance than the child they are carrying?

Are older people with cancer more deserving of life defense than the 40 year old in a serious car accident and on life support? Secularists would say no. The 40 yr old might recover and go back to work. What would the old guard pro lifer say?

If we logically follow Fr. Pavone's thinking we can say Jesus was most deserving of love, care and attention before he was born and it was all downhill from there- He was no longer worthy of our attention.

His importance, His value, if you will, lessened when He reached an age where He could heal people and multiply loaves and fishes by Himself. Presumably Fr. Pavone would have found Christ adequately vulnerable and worthy of his attention when Christ was dying on the Cross. We won't know of course until he decides to comment fully on end of life issues.
But does God really think this way? I think we would be hard pressed to find any Christian faith of any denomination, much less the Catholic faith, who has such an insulting view of God or accuses God of such minimalist care.

Copyright (c) 2017 by Mary Hammond
Copied here with permission.

THE BOOGEY MAN RETURNS

I know, as I write this, that my friends are going to give me a hard time for taking the dog out late at night for his doggy business, but I inadvertently took a super long nap this afternoon and evening, and the dog had not been out for a really long time. At 2:00 a.m., when I awoke, the pooch was doing the pee pee dance.

Sure enough, as soon as I snuck back toward my apartment from a quick trip to the back yard, I was approached by the same guy that I posted about on Sunday (see previous post!)

I raised my heavy wooden walking stick and raised it, yelling, "I don't know you! Get away from me."

Just like Sunday, he circled around and back, swearing at me, then he disappeared into an adjoining hallway of the apartment complex, which clued me into my suspicion that he had taken up residence in one of the building. Earlier this week, my neighbor told me that some of the homeless have been sleeping on the upper floors, surprising neighbors when they came home late or left for work in the morning.

His walk toward me, into the hallway, had been purposeful, and I think he had probably been heading back to the electrical outlet, not realizing that our maintenance man had plated over it this week.

Ironically, the little dog I got as a service dog and watch dog didn't even bark ONCE while I was yelling at the Intruder. Boo Boo just stood there. Some watch dog. As I explained to everyone before getting a service dog, my doctor felt I needed to get a large dog, for safety's sake and to help me get off the floor when I fall. Also, if the dog has to go outside at a weird time of day or night, or if there is someone unsavory waiting for me in the hallway, a large dog would be intimidating. I couldn't afford to buy one myself, no one was giving away hypoallergenic large dogs, and I was unable to raise enough money to purchase one. My little dog will bark if someone knocks on my door, and that is helpful. Plus, he's the cutest, most loving little dog in the world. There's that! He is a permanent part of the household, but I will need to add a large dog as a seeing eye dog in the years to come.

When I became disabled about 14 years ago, I looked upon it as a blessing from God. Although I was not able to hold down a regular job, I imagined I could lead a quiet life of prayer and meditation, devoted to the Lord, something I had wanted to do since leaving the Hindu convent to become Catholic in my late 30's.

My health and finances became worse and worse, however, and I have not been able to find a quiet place to lay my head. When I first moved into this low-income apartment complex, I was charmed by it, and had high hopes, but the management has gradually stripped away all the trees and greenery, while the number of noisy maintenance projects has increased. It got into a fight with the Mid Rio Grande Conservancy District, which then ripped out all the old trees that flanked the back side of the apartment complex that had helped to shelter us from wind and wanderers. This property is wide open to intruders, extremely noisy, and stuck in an isolated, crime ridden, unsafe area. It is a grave comment on the lack of compassion that Americans have, in general, about the poor and especially the disabled poor. Vulnerable populations need to live in safer, more protective environments, not neighborhoods where there are more criminals.

My doctor tells me I have developed a heart murmur, which doesn't surprise me, considering the stress I've been under. He is sending me for an EKG and an ultrasound of my heart in the near future. I'm waiting for a call from the hospital clinic. At the same time, I've been referred for genetic testing to pin down my illness and get a diagnosis. We think it may be Ehlers-Danlos, but we are not sure.

All of this seems like a great distraction to my deep desire for union with the Lord, but the words of the Hindu swami keep coming back to me. He would say, "Your whole life is your spiritual life." These words echo the sentiments of many Catholic saints and have given me solace, as well as a guide to handling this chaotic life that is the opposite of what I'd hoped for.

As much as possible, I pray always. All my actions are dedicated to the Lord, and I keep a running dialog with Him, Our Blessed Mother, the saints and the angels. I may have pictured myself sitting serenely on my recliner in front of my shrine, chanting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, various rosaries, special prayers and chaplets, but the reality is something else entirely. Simple care of the body and the house require much more time and effort than an ordinary person. My schedule is not my own and cannot be geared to the typical monastic routine, because of the nurses and caretakers that are coming to care for me, the maintenance crew that seems to have an unending "to do" list, the needs of the dog and his frequent walkies, and my doctor appointments.

Accepting the will of God is essential, so I have traded in the dreams of what I'd hoped my monastic life would look like, with the reality of what it must be.

In order to obtain needed medical equipment and supplies while finding an affordable house that accommodates my physical needs, I will make an effort to create more income, with my writing, religious paintings and crocheted lace projects. Fund raising will also be necessary, as my income producing abilities are very limited.

The details of the equipment needed and the donation options will be dealt with in my next blog post. As usual, the donation button on the upper right hand side of the column to the right is still working!

What I do not need is advice. If you are not able to help financially, please just pray for a happy outcome, a new residence that suits me, and the cure of my many illnesses (if God so wills it.)

In the meantime, God bless you!

Silver Rose

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE HERMIT

Things are looking more and more bleak, and I am beginning to understand the loss of heart, faith and hope among the poor.

Today, I woke from a nap to see a strange man staring at me through my window while fondling himself with a red bandana. I freaked out, of course, jumped up from my chair and did my best to wake myself up as soon as possible. I had the typical vertigo that I get when I awake, and it took a few minutes to get my bearings and try to decide what to do. My PTSD adrenaline kicked in automatically. I was spinning around the apartment.

Eventually, I heard a voice outside my door. I opened it to find the transient leaning against the opposite wall where there was an open electrical outlet. (The painters had been using it for their multiple electrical machineries and didn't bother to reinstall the locking cap.) He was talking on his cell phone while he continued to steal the electricity from the building.

The man was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, red haired, highly freckled. He was carrying a big black backpack that was wide open and revealed what appeared very much to be a policeman's baton. You can do a lot of damage with one of those.

My automatic reaction was to yell at him and tell him to get lost. What I didn't know is that he'd been there long enough to defecate ON THE SIDEWALK near my window.

I was flabbergasted, and running hot on adrenaline. I'd called a neighbor with whom I'm friendly. She's older than I am and a little more beaten up, but I wanted some company while I walked the dog. It was time for him to do his business and I didn't feel safe in the parking lot yet.

My neighbor didn't like it that I was upset and reeling from the experience, and she attempted to calm me down by telling me to calm down, which never works,of course. I don't know why people do that. Even though it is natural to be upset about something so bizarre happening to a person, they tell you relax, even though it is stupid and impossible. Perhaps the upset makes them nervous or uncomfortable. They can't themselves remain calm in the presence of someone who has been severely jangled.

There are some circumstances under which being calm is NOT the answer. Generally, I am calm, and I enjoy it, but when transients are violating your dignity through a plate glass window and depositing feces on the sidewalk before casually stealing electricity, being calm would be rather odd, in my mind.

I had to call the maintenance man, completely oblivious that it is super bowl Sunday and that he was most certainly watching the game. He did come out during half time, and I think he is a real brick for doing it. He cleaned up the feces from the sidewalk outside my window while the police office talked to me about what had happened.

We were promised that the police would keep an eye on us tonight, with the hope that the locking plate for the electrical outlet would be fixed ASAP.

This has happened before. Whenever the plate over the electrical outlet goes missing, word gets around the homeless population and there ensues a constant stream of transients outside my door, bellowing their odd personal business into their cell phones while the cell phone charges at the same time.

I told the police officer that I understand that most of these homeless people just CANT live like the rest of us do. If you put them into an apartment, they wouldn't know how to live there. Camping out in the Bosque is preferable to some people, even in the biting cold of winter. I crochet hats for them and give them to the Joy Junction people who send their van out on the cold nights to pick up the willing homeless and take them to their facility. They give the hats to the ones who refuse to go, the ones they leave behind. It isn't just poverty that keeps them in the street or in the Bosque. It's temperament and/or insanity. I understand. I am unusual, in my own way, and, although I have no problem living indoors, I have other problems with some parts of civilization with which most people have no problem coping. Perhaps coping isn't the word, really, because for most people these things are not problems at all.

For the last three years I have been trying to find another place to live, someplace near friends who have middle class lives, near middle class grocery stores. They have comfortable old houses, with landscaping of varying pleasantness. Nothing too fancy. I like it there, in the middle of the road of life. I don't crave excitement, but rather ordinariness and calm.

These friends, with their large families and regular church attendance and duties, are special to me. They are kind to me, and loving. They have been trying to get me to live closer to them so they can help me easier, but finding something suitable and affordable has proven to be impossible, so far. After 3 years, they won't say they would give up. They are sturdier stock than that! They won't give up, but I think they may also be losing hope.

All of the affordable housing is located outside the magical realm of the nice middle class neighborhoods and grocery stores. Every single one is in an awful part of town, on a busy main street. Nothing is available in any residential neighborhood. It is almost as if it was PLANNED that way...a plan to keep the poor away from anything pretty, good, nice or decent.

I wonder if the city planners, when they think of poor people, imagine people like the man who left excrement on my sidewalk. When people talk about what to do about the poor, is it them that they think of? In reality, poor people are mostly elderly and disabled. The homeless, in reality, take up less than 1% of the poor, but they are so visible and their behavior so memorable that they overshadow the rest of us - those who know how to keep an apartment and pay our bills.

If I was a saint, I wouldn't be so distraught. I would not concern myself with my comfort. I would simply feel sorry for the man who is so broken that he would do the things he did tonight outside my window. In reality, I feel trapped and sorrowful, stuck in an ugly life that has room for these kind of atrocities. I feel incapable of wanting to rise to sainthood. I don't even WANT to be comfortable with what has happened here tonight. Not a shred of my being is interested in self-abnegation.

I think about Mother Theresa and the hardships she CHOSE. I wish I was a better person. I don't know whether or not to pray for the courage to remain here, happily, without complaint...or run screaming to some other town or state or SOMEWHERE, anywhere but here, where the stains of that man still mar the sidewalk.

It is a sad night, my friends. Please pray for the little Hermit, that I may become better than I am.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

PATTERNS OF NATURE INFORM THE MIND

"Mystic River"

Copyright Silver Rose Parnell

Abstract patterns give the impression of river.

I woke this morning wondering what fresh hell would assault me when I checked into the news, as I am wont to do these days. I admit I HAVE been worried about our country since Donald Trump took the throne.

First up was the propaganda show put on by Trump's propaganda machine, carefully scripted and dripping with inappropriate superlatives in a concert of hyperbole known as the "Press Briefing." Sean Spicer read from his daily tribute to The Dear Leader, extolling his virtues, where even Trump's incredible faux pas and failures are couched in self-congratulatory terms.

If I wrote about every occasion upon which Trump threatened our national safety, reputation or security, I would spend my entire day writing political blogs, and that isn't my role in life. Nor is it even my genre, as a writer. As a religious woman, matters of state do not typically take any space in my mind, except where I feel that religious freedoms may be at stake, and this is where I feel Donald Trump may do us the most harm, which is why I write about him on occasion.

As is customary with these so-called "press briefings," Spicer has very little definitive information in answer to any of the questions asked by the press. He dances around all the topics like an aged ballerina. It is obvious from his verbal Swan Lake that he has not been given permission to convey any information that is not contained in the highly scripted Ode to the Toad.

This is the pattern of the joke known as "The Press Briefing": Spicer reads the Ode, the contents of which convey the uneven input of the Greek Chorus that has combed through it, overseen by Trump, who has thrown clunky, brash superlatives into the mix, like flat notes inserted into an overwhelmingly loud and brassy piece of performance art. The entire tone of the opus is false, where all of Trump's failures and missteps are characterized as grand successes, such as the recent debacle in Yemen in which lives were lost. Trump, through the mouth of Spicer, insists that it was a "success" (because everything he does is a success in his own eyes and anyone who disagrees is invited to leave or is summarily fired.)

The Press tries to get detail from Spicer, who has OBVIOUSLY been put under some kind of gag order by Trump. Trump issues the "truth of the day" and that's it. That's all you get. Even when the topic of RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS was batted around,  Spicer was obviously trying not to say anything that would get him in trouble on either side.

In this morning's briefing we learned, in general terms that Trump is in favor of religious people being able to adhere to their religion without interference from the government, but Spicer couldn't commit to what that meant exactly. He can only deal with general theory because his boss hasn't prepared any specifics or his boss doesn't want anyone to be prepared for the specifics when he writes one of his flood of executive orders that he's been printing up like playbills for the show that is Trump.

Because Trump behaves so inappropriately and has become a laughing stock with the majority of Americans and the rest of the world, Spicer's announcement this morning about religious freedoms is painful to hear. If the press secretary of a man with gravitas were saying the same things, it would be of great benefit to those of us who are pro-life and do not wish to be forced to participate in any activity that even whispers the name of abortion. None of us wants federal money going to Planned Parenthood. We do not want little family businesses bankrupted because their religious sentiments prevent them from baking cakes for weddings of same sex couples. People voted for Trump SOLELY because they hoped he would reverse Roe v. Wade by a well placed Supreme Court placement or two or three.

If Trump was a serious diplomat, a skilled and elegant leader, aware of the nuances of politics and people, his support of religious freedom would have some weight. He would be able to change the flow of culture that is careening close to the edge of outright public persecution of Christians, but since he is such an incredible boob, it is harmful to the cause to be affiliated with him. Everything he does is wacky, uninformed, boorish, impolite and just plain primitive.

Sometime in the future, when Trump is out of office, everything he does will be reversed, just as he is now trying to reverse everything that Obama did, and our country is going to have to figure out how to prevent someone like this from grabbing power ever again. We are going to have to rebuild our democracy, after he and Steve Bannon are through tearing it down.

When Trump was first elected, I worried a lot about how his behavior would affect America's relationships with our allies and our enemies alike, but I now realize that our allies have leaders who are more intelligent, skilled, nuanced and educated than Trump. Foreign leaders in the developed world see him for who he is, and they also see us for who WE are. They know that Trump lost the popular vote by close to 3 million people. They have seen the videos of mass marches and demonstrations against him in cities all over the U.S. They know that "America" is not behind Trump, but these leaders also see diplomatic affairs through the lens of history, where patterns of behavior are crucial to the apprehension of future events.

Trump is not the first fatally flawed egomaniac to take control of a country, suppress freedom of speech and produce masses of propaganda to disguise what is really going on. Autocrats throughout history have picked out a vulnerable population to blame for everything that is wrong in the country. With the Nazis, it was the Jews. With Trump it is the "illegals." It is typical for this type of leader to move their family into the seat of power, giving the closest jobs to those to whom they are related. Trump is not the first man to fire anyone who dares refuse to do something illegal to satisfy the monarch. Nor is he the first to make wild, impossible promises like Trump's promise to improve services and create more jobs while cutting costs at the same time. Hitler's promises of wealth and plenty upon the removal of the Jews was a similar promise. PATTERNS. Patterns (history) count.

Autocrats like Trump commonly use force, bullying, intimidation and personal humiliation as primary tools to accomplish his real purpose. Look to his Leninist, white supremacist sidekick, Steve Bannon, for clues to Trump's real agenda. Trump is out to dismantle our brand of democracy and create something else. He just hasn't told us about it. You can read about it, though, in the Breitbart editorials.

World leaders see Trump for who he is, which is why the Australian Prime Minister didn't mention Trump's boorish rudeness during their telephone call. When asked about it by the press, he only said, with a slight smile playing on his lips, that the deal between America and Australia (with regard to some refugees who have been stuck on some islands outside Australia for a few years) is still in place. Later, he expressed regret that there was a leak of his telephone conversation with the president.

Leaders of foreign countries can see the patterns of Trump's behavior, patterns to which he seems to be enslaved. In every interaction, no matter who it is, Trump first flatters his target and then he flatters himself a while, at which point, he makes a grab for whatever he wants or makes the self-aggrandizing point he wants to make. If Trump doesn't get what he wants out of the interaction, he goes on the attack and in his most hostile, boorish manner, starts calling his adversary unsavory names and insulting them. Everyone knows this about him. Nervous laughter ensues. No one is going to give a hint that they disagree with him.

He certainly did this with the women he pursued and assaulted. First, he flatters the woman, then he flatters himself, then he makes a grab for what he wants. If rebuffed, he calls her ugly or whatever other vile insult comes into his mind. He did this to at least one of the dozen or so women who came forward to confirm that his bragging about sexual assaults was true. He has no shame, this man. His support of the cause of religious freedom is about as helpful as that of the KKK.

We take our cues of behavior from the patterns of what other people do and say, wear and consume. Our bodies are conformed of patterns of cells. Bees produce wax homes for their queens and their honey using hexagonal patterns that are beautifully laid out. This is a natural gift given by God. Patterns of behavior inform our consciousness and help us decide what is safe, what is good, what is bad.

Criticizing Donald Trump, based on his patterns of behavior, isn't safe. Nervous laughter.

After watching the Press Briefing reality show, I took a look at some film of Trump's meeting today with Harley Davidson motorcycle riders. He stroked them for a short time with a handful of whatever flattery he had in his head at the moment. Then he immediately switched to flattering himself. He talked about his great win of the presidency (which he can't seem to get over and continues to crow about), then made insulting comments about his telephone call with the Australian Prime Minister (which has nothing to do with the Harley Davidson people who were sitting in front of him and which prompted nervous laughter.)

Trump is the original solipsist, except that you may not exist in his consciousness even if you ARE sitting right in front of him. His mind is captured by the latest irritation he experienced and/or the current lie he is trying to promote. I guess he thinks that if he says it enough times to enough people in enough venues it will magically become true.

This is not the man who is going to reinstall God at the head of the government of America. People who think they ARE God never do that. If anything, he will hurt our cause. I am sorry, my dear friends who voted for him, but you will be greatly disappointed when the Trump show is over and the final reviews are in. Abortion will not be abolished because of anything that Trump does. Although a great number of Americans do not believe in abortion, there are far more people who want it to be legal, and that is going to be the overriding consideration of even the most obtuse political hack who isn't saddled with Donald Trump's crippling emotional need for approval.

As far as whether or not our reputation will be lost with leaders of foreign countries,  I suspect that the people who REALLY run the world, the guys who never lose their jobs, the CIA and other intelligence people on the ground, those whose job relies upon anonymity -  THOSE people are far smarter than all of us and are not about to let this child-man throw the world into chaos, if possible. These people have relationships with counterparts in other countries. They are on the job, doing their best to protect us on the ground. I hope they are successful because Trump has threatened to invade Mexico with Troops, break an agreement to house refugees currently housed in Australia, pull the U.S. out of Nato, take military actions against Iran, etc. etc. etc.

The only people who may be moved to action against him would be leaders in countries that are completely disconnected from us. Notice that Trump hasn't said anything about North Korea? If he insults their Dear Leader, who knows what would happen? They don't have the sophistication of the rest of the world, having removed themselves from it. Their leader may not be able to put aside a loss to his honor because of some slight by The Donald. He likely does not have the savvy of the Prime Minister of Australia who clearly knows what he's dealing with.

While hobbling home from my first walk with the dog this morning and thinking about all these things, I happened to notice the beautiful job that is being done on an apartment complex in my neighborhood. The patterns of the work conjure up, in the most abstract manner, the surrounding landscape, and the history of place. I had to stop for a while and just admire the design. The architect had won a very prestigious architectural award for its design many years ago. I hadn't appreciated it before, when someone else had destroyed the design by slapping a few ill-conceived paint colors over the original masterpiece.

The painting isn't finished, but I can already feel the vision of the architect. The pattern of his work clearly evokes the New Mexican vibe. The very top part of the building incorporates the colors of the stormy summer clouds that we love so much in this part of the world. The colors actually made my brain feel good....and I really needed to feel good today.

Please pray for our misguided and childish President, as well as everyone else who has to work with him. Please pray that the Lord illumines Trump and gives him inner guidance that will encourage him to cease this turbulent, disturbing method of doing business.

Please pray for our beautiful world and its stunning symmetry of pattern. Pray that we all experience the teaching that is inherent in our appreciation of the beautiful patterns of the world and let it calm and soothe us, giving us peace within ourselves and in our relationships with everyone else in the world.

Lord save us all.

Silver Rose Parnell

EHLERS-DANLOS SYNDROME - THE CAUSE OF A HUNDRED MYSTERIES - Updated July, 2024)

Silver S. Parnell

2020

Age 66

NO ONE HAS X-RAY VISION

This is one of those posts that I write, not for myself, but for the thousands of people I represent. I hope to encourage people not to judge the sufferings of others by simply looking at the person. No one has x-ray vision. No one can miraculously feel the pain that is being endured by any other person, especially in a world in which people are punished for expressing pain and suffering, and many of us put on a brave face and a smile, just to keep from being criticized harshly.

Just the other day, I  told a neighbor of a difficulty I was having, in response to her question about how I was doing. Instead of being sympathetic and understanding, she got on her soap box and started lecturing me about how I should not feel this pain, how I should pretend I have no suffering, and how I should not tell anyone the truth.

This is so tedious.

BUT PEOPLE WILL JUDGE

There is much advice from judgmental folk that advocates for putting on a sunny face, but the majority of the Biblical injunctions when dealing with suffering say that we are to be sympathetic, to be loving, to be like Jesus. Jesus said to serve one another. He said to treat one another as we would wish to be treated. The Old Testament advised us to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those that mourn.

No one wants to be lectured when they are in pain. No one wants or needs advice when we are depressed or hurting, but we live in a judgmental, selfish world. It is SO much easier to criticize the pain of other people than it is to do anything to help alleviate it. 

OLDER THAN I LOOK

I write about my personal experiences so that you all my extrapolate my experiences to include those of millions of American sufferers of a mostly hidden, inherited disease.

My whole adult life, people have been telling me that I look very young for my age. The other day, my bathing assistant reacted with great surprise when I told her my age. Many people would be thrilled with this state of affairs, but looking young for one's age CAN be the sign of a little-known syndrome called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (named after the researchers who pinned this down. I wish scientists wouldn't do this. It just makes it difficult on all those of us who have to wrap our mouths around the name. Why didn't they call this super bendy disease or circus girl syndrome.)

IDLE CURIOSITY OR IDLE JUDGMENT?

Many people have expressed curiosity about my disability status. I think part of the curiosity (which, in some people, is actually judgmental suspicion in nicer clothes) is that I just don't LOOK like I am disabled. I look great, apart from being fluffier than what is fashionable in this era, but you can't see pain, you can't see fatigue, you can't see the mutated genes or the multiple body parts that are composed of collagen, which is malfunctioning, due to the mutations.

LOTS OF BROKEN BONES

When I was about 9, I was standing in a field, watching some other kids play baseball. I had been standing too long when I started to feel a sudden increase of weakness in my knees and ankles. This wasn't new to me. I'd been dealing with persistent fatigue and loose joints my whole life. Usually, I would sit down at this point, but there was nowhere to go.

Mom, I need to sit down," I said to my mother, tugging on her shirtsleeve. A diffident woman who never liked me much, she just looked at me and made a face. My ankles gave way and I fell to the ground. I broke my elbow that time. In the next few years, I would go on to break the metatarsal bones in my left foot 5 times, wearing a cast on my foot each time. That foot is a different size and width from my other foot today, and because it is longer than the right foot, I have a hammer toe that happened overnight, it seems to me.

I was 13 before I had enough control over my muscles to know how to avoid the fatigue and falling that the bendy tendons, ligaments, and the rest of the connective tissue structures would cause. We were a long time away from learning about this rare condition, and I didn't really put conscious effort into getting control of my body. It is just one of those things that you DO when you inhabit human form. When you're a kid, you learn to ride that thing.

NOT DESTINED FOR THE CATWALK

I am not sure why I ended up being one of the sufferers of EDS and related genetic disorders. I just remember eating the same or less than my sister. She was skinny. I was tubby. It was weird. Losing weight has always been particularly challenging, as I have to practically starve myself to pare down, and the weight comes right back on my frame, with seemingly little effort.

Because of the loose joints, due to overly stretchy and "double" joints, I was never able to wear heels. I was overjoyed when Birkenstocks became popular. They are very expensive, however, and many of the styles do not fit me because of my wide forefoot.

Because of the foot issues, the style of clothing I could wear was dictated by the Birkenstock shoes. I had to be REAL creative about it. Sometimes I could find men's boots that came in wide enough sizes to fit me, so for a long time, I wore pants and cowboy boots or jodhpurs. This suited me fine when I was riding 4 hours a day in boarding school. But I can also remember hand cutting and sewing "maxi dresses" to the floor, made from Indian cotton fabric, printed in paisleys.

The entire trajectory of my life was determined by my wonky feet and my hypermobility spectrum disorder. I couldn't have changed much about it. Thank goodness I had some modesty and preferred to dress with some actual clothes, rather than the sky-high heels and short dresses that became popular at the waning of the hippie era.

SHAKE YOUR TAIL FEATHERS

I began working when I was 11, in 1965, but in my 30's, most of you will remember that I was a religious, where I was a nun, searching for peace, in a Hindu convent (which is where I read about Jesus and became converted to Him!) While cooking one day, I fell right on my tailbone and cracked it but good, smack dab on the hard Mexican tiles. With the already existing scoliosis at the hip, previously broken tailbone, and chronic back trauma, I was in terrible shape. In fact, I had to be scooted around in a wheelchair which, evidently, the other nuns really resented because the head of the convent went to the Swami in charge and told him that I was "faking it," in her words. She knew nothing, of course, and hadn't so much as questioned me or the doctors, nor had she seen the X-rays that clearly showed the multiple issues. I suppose she thought I looked just fine and decided I was "malingering."

In the Catholic faith, gossip is actually a collection of different sins. In these circumstances, it would be considered a "mortal" sin. The Vedantists don't believe in sin, however. Lucky break for those nuns because my name was in their mouths far too often. I used to think I was especially despised by them, and it puzzled me, because I loved them. But, many years later, I now know that women just gossip. Nearly every woman I have ever met has been a gossip - except my friend Jane and a small handful of people who keep their own counsel.

I left that convent, just positive that I was going to find a lovely Catholic community. All I had to do was find a Catholic Church, join the RCIA class, get baptized, and I would be golden.  But people are people everywhere

One of the Ehlers-Danlos websites pointed out this tendency of others to judge harshly those who are afflicted with this syndrome, as looks can be deceiving and some people really DO prefer to judge a book by its cover. Although EDS and related genetic disorders are not curable, I feel wonderful knowing that I am vindicated, after years of people treating me unkindly as a result of this illness.

LOOKING GOOD AND FEELING BAD

The pain of EDS and related genetic disorders, in particular, is far greater than what one would expect upon examination of the x-rays of the osteo-arthritis that shows up rather early in life. That is because only part of the pain is related to the bone-on-bone pain of the arthritis itself. Some of it stems from muscular stress and injury caused by the muscles having to do the work that ligaments and tendons are supposed to be doing. Some of it is caused by the syndrome itself, which is somewhat related to fibromyalgia. There are new studies on the pain aspect of EDS, and more news should be coming up about that aspect fairly soon, I would bet. The related hypermobility spectrum disorder will be affected, as well, I would think.

DEPRESSION

Depression is also one of the symptoms, though it does not appear to be situational, but rather a chemical function arising out of the mutations of the genes that cause this illness.  I read an article recently that was too far above my comprehension. Something about brain chemistry was discussed in relation to the depression. It is not the typical depression, and I think that there may be some specific anti-depressants that would be called for, under these circumstances. FORTUNATELY, I am able to fight the depression with prayer and meditation. It doesn't "fix" it, but I am remarkably cheerful, considering everything I endure.

During the course of my reading about Ehlers-Danlos and related genetic syndromes, I began to learn about the lesser-known presentations in some forms of this disease, I felt like I was making check marks on a looooong list of weird physical symptoms that had hounded me my entire life, starting in early childhood.

DENTAL MALFORMATIONS

A high palate and "crowded teeth" are another common feature of those with EDS, and I have that as well! When I was a child, they wanted to pull 4 teeth to solve the crowding issue.

SIX VERSIONS OF EDS

My doctor and I are still comparing notes between my symptoms and the research. We have not pinned down WHICH version I have, because testing was not available at the time my hypermobility spectrum disorder was diagnosed, but it appears obvious that, of the 6 different types of EDS, I seem to have the most common form of it, the hypermobility type, which is being called hypermobility spectrum disorder at this time. I could also have another version that involves the heart, but funding for the genetic testing was not available when I went to see the specialist for my EDS.  Hypermobility spectrum disorder is "less severe" which probably accounts for the long time in which it has taken for me to be diagnosed. I've always known there was something, in particular, that was wrong with me....something that would explain the physical problems that have caused me such pain and inconvenience my whole life, but I don't think that the doctors have been terribly interested in diagnosing. These days, it seems that medicine has to be fixated on dealing with the symptoms, since insurance companies pressure doctors to handle many more patients than is probably good for us.

Frankly, my diagnosis was fueled entirely by my curiosity and the fact that I am an experienced researcher. I was motivated and just happened to hit upon the right websites. Once my doctor was alerted to my symptoms dating back to childhood, however, he jumped right on board. We are all happy to have an explanation of my complaints.

YOGA MASTER

My experience of EDS was initially "tipped off" by extreme double-jointedness in my whole body. Even though I am in my 60's, I am still really bendy! I can bend over and touch my palms to the floor without bending my knees. Makes for a great showing in a yoga class, but can lead to lots of sprains, strains, falls and breaks, which is what I had my entire life, starting in early childhood.

If you have EDS or hypermobility spectrum disorder, DON'T do yoga!  That's the worst type of exercise you can do. Strength training and aerobics are OK, especially the strength training, because your muscles have to make up for what your tendons can't do.

CLUMSY KID

Children with EDS or hypermobility spectrum disorder are often accused of being "clumsy," and that is because they have not yet developed the motor skills necessary to take over where the tendons and ligaments are loose. Even today, I have to move slowly and do all my physical activities very deliberately, otherwise, I am prone to tripping, falling, dropping things, and breaking many items.

Before I was 5 years old, I remember my parents calling the doctor to come out to the house in the middle of the night because I was having terrible pain in both legs, starting from the hips on down. The doctor diagnosed them as "growing pains," but now I read on various EDS websites that many sufferers of this disease have those awful leg pains as children. The explanation is that the effort needed by the muscles to take over for what the ligaments and tendons are supposed to do causes terrible muscular pains and spasms.

ARTHRITIS AND ALLERGIES

(Asthma and multiple allergies are also common in people with EDS. I remember the doctor coming out to the house for THOSE issues also.)

My tendons, cartilage, ligaments and all the other things that are supposed to hold my joints together are unreliable and let me just fall where I may. I remember once when I was about 10, I was standing in the back yard, just watching other kids playing, when my left ankle gave way and I fell to the ground, breaking my right elbow.

SUPER BENDY DISEASE AND PURPLE VEINS

By the time I was 11, I'd had 5 casts on my left foot, having broken numerous bones from falling as a result of my ankle just giving way. At the same time, I developed severe varicose veins before the age of 13. I have had MANY sprains and strains of my ankles, which is common with EDS and with the hypermobility spectrum disorder.

NARROW HEELS AND FLAT FEET

I've never been able to find shoes with any ease, since I had bunions while still very young, extremely wide feet with narrow heels, and flat feet. The collagen-based structures could not hold my feet together in the way that they do in normal people.

BRUSH YOUR TEETH CAREFULLY

Likewise, nothing could hold my spine in place when I was brushing my teeth too vigorously one morning when I was about 24 years old, and my back went into horrific spasms. I missed at least a week of work and was put on strong muscle relaxers.

I CAN'T STAND THIS JOB

The veins in my leg, in addition to being varicose, also have defective valves that cannot push the blood back up to the heart. Consequently, I've never been able to hold a job that involved any standing. In my early 20's, I got a job at Nordstrom's in a mall in Los Angeles. I was excited about getting a 40% discount off any clothes I would buy, but I only lasted 4 days. My job should not have been physically taxing for a young, thin, and "apparently" healthy woman, but it caused me extreme pain in my legs and hips and, by the end of those 4 days, I became bedridden and stayed there for more than a week!

JUST LIKE MY DAD

One of my legs is longer than the other, not by much, but this was confirmed by more than one chiropractor. My father had the same problem. This brings up the fact that this disease is inherited from one's parent or parents.

BUILT LIKE A SPIDER

Purchasing clothing has always been particularly difficult, especially when trying to buy pants because my extremities are too long for my torso. This is quite common. Usually, the fingers are also very long, but I did not inherit that aspect. I am really tired of my arms popping out of the sleeves of all my shirts and my pants looking like I am going to a flood. In the early 1970's, you used to be able to buy all sorts of slacks and blue jeans that were not hemmed because some women were wearing sky-high platform shoes, I suppose.

Due to a very short torso, not only are the pant legs too short, but the "waist" of all pants rides up to my arm pits...just one of the several reasons that I prefer to wear dresses, rather than pants. "Maxi dresses" are never long enough, though. If they fit in the bodice, they're at least 4 inches too short in the length. This is really inconvenient because I am keen to hide all those ugly varicose and spider veins.

I DON'T SEE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS

When I was 10 years old, I was reading my mother's library of books. My parents never bothered to buy us children's books. I was reading Shakespeare's complete works and Somerset Maugham and O'Henry, but at school I was getting D's. It was decided that my vision was the problem, so my mother took me to the optometrist who asked me, "read the top letter on the eye chart."

I said, "What eye chart?"

It turns out that, due to the fact that the human eye is made almost entirely of collagen, people with EDS are often extremely nearsighted, with multiple astigmatisms, floaters and cataracts. Operating on the cataracts may not be recommended, however, due to poor wound healing. Also, I have macular degeneration, from which I have already become blind in one eye. Without glasses, I am legally blind and have been since a child.

FOUR EYES ARE NOT ENOUGH

I must wear glasses constantly, changing from one version to another, to accommodate different vision issues, depending on whether I am reading, writing, watching television, going outside in the sun. It is extremely important to protect my eyes from all glare and sunshine so I never have to make a decision about whether or not to have surgery on my eyes.

My eyeglasses HAVE to have adjustable nose bridges because, like many EDS sufferers, I have an extremely narrow bridge. For some, their entire nose is quite skinny. I can't take advantage of the low-cost eyeglasses that are advertised on television all the time, as they're all plastic, and even the little eyeglass patches with adhesive on them won't keep the plastic glasses from sliding down to the tip of my nose.

WAKING UP DURING SURGERY

Local anesthesia often doesn't work on people with EDS, something that doesn't surprise me at all, but which surprised the last dentist I saw, many years ago. By the time he finished shooting me with novacaine, the first shot had already worn off. After that experience, I had to get all my work done with a dental surgeon who would put me out.

Last year, I had surgery on one of my fingers. There was a growth that turned out to be benign. The anesthesiologist refused to believe that local anesthesia does not work for me, and dismissed my constant complaints with a paternal, condescending manner. I ended up waking up twice during surgery! The anesthesiologist's resident, not expecting me to wake and see what he was doing, was reading his email on his telephone! I told him, "Hey! I'm awake! Put me back to sleep!"  He did so, without a glance in my direction or an apology.

While the written post-surgery directions told me that I wouldn't have use of my arm until many hours after surgery, my use and function on that arm was completely normal when I woke from surgery (for the last time.) At the time of this surgery, I was unaware of EDS. My negative experiences with this surgery could have been alleviated, had I known.

FACE CREAM NOT NECESSARY

There are some dermatological signs in EDS, and I have very slight presentations in this regard. Soft, velvety skin is one sign. Super stretchy skin is another, which I did not not seem to have when I was younger, but as I edit this blog in 2024, the super-stretchy skin has appeared, especially now that I have lost at least 40 pounds since writing this post.) An odd type of scar formation is present in many, and I have a bit of this, having somewhat delicate skin. I STILL have a scar from a slight injury on my tricycle when I was 5 years old. These scars tend to widen and whiten. They're called cigarette paper scars.

Scoliosis is common in EDS. I have that as well as sciatic issues, which is equally common.

FAINTING SPELLS

A tendency to faint is another symptom, as is fatigue, especially when one adopts a position for too long of a time. Like sharks, we must keep moving.

For the last month, I have been suffering from incessant vertigo, dizziness, a feeling of faintness, fatigue and sleepiness. This is why the nurses have been coming to care for me, as well as an attendant, who helps me bathe. Some day soon, I hope to have a housekeeper who may cook, clean and take me on errands. AFFORDING it may be an issue, though I am pleading for assistance through Medicare. We shall see what they say. (UPDATE: 2024 - I was approved for a Medicaid waiver for the aged and disabled. So far, they have provided me with an electric wheelchair and a part-time attendant.)

A scooter is also a piece of equipment that I will be needing immediately, as is a large bendable bed for the bendy hermit. Though Medicare MAY pay for portions of these items, I will need to pay portions of it. (UPDATE, 2024: I am now in an electric wheelchair any time I have to walk more than a few feet.)

MOVE TO ANOTHER LOCATION IS URGENTLY NECESSARY

I also need to move to a hermitage that addresses my physical and spiritual needs, ESPECIALLY since my current Landlord is hostile toward the disabled and has given me a terrible time with regard to reasonable accommodations that I need in order to function. (UPDATE, 2024: Managers keep telling me that "it isn't fair" for me to have anything that other residents do not have, completely ignoring fair housing regulations. At this time they are removing my parking from in front of my garage to give it to able-bodied construction workers for their convenient parking.)

Anyone able to help financially, please click on the DONATION button on the top, right-hand side of this blog.

HOME SWEET HOME

All others, I beg for your prayers. Please ask for a small house with its own fenced yard for the service dog, very close to the church which our Lord wishes me to attend; a car with a lift meant for the transport of my electric wheelchair; new eyeglasses; and dental work.

The three sets of eyeglasses that I need will cost half a month's income. Obviously, this is beyond my capacity.

There is no cure for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or the related syndromes, but pain and other issues may be addressed. I have faith in your prayers.

Anyone wishing to gather more information about Ehlers-Danlos, please refer to THE EHLERS-DANLOS SOCIETY

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

(c) Copyright 2017

All rights reserved.