Is it Dementia or is it Portlandia? (or Rye , wry and rhy-me !)

A Poet, I am not. But over the years I have noticed a great humor in words. Not so much in Russian, but Turkish is very funny. German can be funny but you can get ostracized for it. Gosh, there’s a word I haven’t used in years. I wonder if the root word is Ostrich? And since when did that become a German Bird?

There are times I get to feeling down and with a hard winter setting in I have to turn my thoughts inward. Cleaning out the “attic” is not an easy Job! Good Mental Health involves a lot more than being able to tell a dirty joke. It takes work. If it were easy there would not be so many counselors not knowing what they are doing. “How does that make you feel?” God, I am so very glad I don’t have to say that like 450 times a day. I could get hurt!

Is that fair? Whose responsibility is it? How do you pick somebody to help? A great Book of Wisdom says you should “knock on doors”. OK. As if that’s not going to get you either shot or arrested. I suppose I could ask one of those people with the cardboard signs. They seem to have all the answers. There’s a storm coming and I am worried about folks not having any sense enough to come in out of the rain!

Maybe it’s an oxymoron. Good mental health. Perhaps, it isn’t something you have but strive for. I think a good start would be changing the diagnosis from Dementia to something more appropriate. We could call it “Portlandia”, you know, Oregon, where it rains all the time. Sounds far more descriptive of the symptoms. Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder Syndrome (SADS) comes pretty close, but rather than Dementia I think Portlandia is more age-gender friendly. Oregonians won’t care. Might even be honored. “Hey, we got a disease named after us!”

That is probably not fair either. For a “Not FAIR” disease, how do we take this into the new millennium? Here’s the thing. With the treatments already in place even they are being left by the wayside because Doctors don’t prescribe them until you need them, and then it can take them a year to get it right. Then there’s me. “Oh hell. I’m off my meds! AGAIN! I forgot. I don’t want to. I’m broke. The Pharmacist doesn’t like me. I woke up too late, the busses are not running and the Drugstore is closed!” Here’s the thing, they (the powers that be or the Federal “Give ’em what they need – Fairy” has all that covered and it’s still not working. I know because I asked the guy with the cardboard sign.

I’m going back to knocking on doors. I suppose you could ask the Bus Driver, Airport Attendant, Valet, and Concierges have made it into a science. Waiters and Waitresses on a Midnight Shift are famous sources of wisdom. “OOPS, I accidentally killed somebody. What do I do?” AND what is really “cool” is that they are never questioned by the authorities. There is no record and they don’t know who you are. “Oh, well you could just bury the body in a Cemetery. They will never look for it there.” Did I mention it only costs a modest “tip” and you get a cup of coffee too! Not once. Not ever. Will I hear the words “How does that make you feel?”

I did notice that the spelling is not quite gender appropriate as there are men in the career field now. I suppose I could ask a PSY “chic”.

 

Tags: terms, Cecil Ristow

   Sincerely Cecil

 

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