The Groundhog

Studying the groundhog goes back to caveman days. Coming out of an Ice Age it was important to know when to plant. Cycles of the equinox are found as some of the first educational inscriptions found on engraved and ceramic plaques dating back 36,000 years. Reading the position of the stars predict when the sun is coming and how long we are going to have it. False starts can end in disaster when planting time comes. Notably enough Starlings that show up early with the first sun serve only to feed the Ravens. Not hanging with the flock can get you killed. Whereas the Early Bird gets the Worm the earlier bird gets eaten. Best to be right!

Those days are long past. The Groundhog survives but, nobody knows why. They think it’s all a big joke. I would, a whole lot, rather have Dementia than be ignorant! Cavemen lived in caves and survived. Nomads lived out in the open and were largely too hungry, weak and cold to be mad about anything. That’s why they are called Nomads. Early Christians went underground and live there for maybe 400 years before poking their noses out. Thomas Kempis writes a whole chapter in his book ‘Imitation of Christ’ towards “The Interior Life”. Why is this so important? We spend about a third of our lives alone, family has moved away, out on their own or life has changed and we find ourselves in a period of readjustment. The absolute need for an interior life is addressed in this chapter.

We are all the way into the new Millennium and school is still about sitting down and shutting up. What is that all that about? Discipline is supposed to be learning and you can’t do that without running around in circles talking. Oh, Government Control? Obviously, if all I do is play fantasy games the world is going to give me a job because I’m a Master of the Universe. Right!

It may very well be that it is more an enforcement of student’s development of an interior consciousness which can be developed into a magnificent ability to entertain oneself without cable. Only Thomas Kempis entertains the idea that an interior life can be rich and rewarding. Not boring at all! I fear like so many Authors, nobody reads the book or if they do nobody gets it.

Enter the Groundhog. The Groundhog is very unforgiving. He owns the “I TOLD you so” Network. It is now 37,000 years and we’ve been in and out of a few Ice ages since then. Now, all you have to do is wiggle your fingers at your device and you don’t even have to talk, write or know anything. Critical thinking is quite out a window nobody is watching anymore. Soon cars will be driven for us. I can live in whatever virtual world I want! Corporations and Government aim to wage a, “By the People. For the People” style campaign. They want to hijack my interior life then sell it back to me. That Groundhog is going underground again!

A big part of me is feeling like, “OK, I got a Dementia diagnosis and that is just as well because I don’t have to feel so bad about not being able to keep up and others have to just get used to the idea that I will not understand spending all day wiggling your fingers at a black box.” I have earned the right to my sun ups, my sun downs, breakfast lunch and dinner and I can have a nap whenever I want. My windows face outward and I don’t have to wiggle my fingers at them.

   Sincerely Cecil

tags: learning, consciousness, dementia

Cecil’s index page for other entries is at https://truthfulkindness.com/index-persons-with-dementia-pwd/cecil-ristow/ .

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