Back in the ugly days when my mother was just entering her long battle with alzheimer’s disease (no capitals, please) and telling deranged stories, newly crafted versions of her past, I was stunned by the discovery that all of them had a strongly negative bias. I wondered why. If she were reinventing her life, why wouldn’t she try to improve it? She made a point of affirming that I hated her, that my brother and I hated each other; I even have a subtle memory that she deplored her marriage to my father, which I always believed had been perfect. (I prefer to leave the memory of my father as a great man untouched. May he rest in peace. May they both rest in peace.)
I was reminded of these sad stories while reflecting…show more content… Why? I cannot say. Our lives, including my own, are so heavily based upon these technological advances there’s no way we can turn it around, or simply dismiss them. At any rate, why would we? It is human nature that is intrinsically bad. Look around and you’ll figure out how we always find a way to ruin our best achievements and creations. My mother’s sick mind was only a good example of this tendency. Okay, maybe I’m having a bad…show more content… However, to my utmost surprise, I was in the car with Alan when we listened to a radio interview about how Sharia Law has been imposed on Muslim countries quite recently, in fact. “In the 1950’s,” we heard, “big cities in the Middle East were cosmopolitan and lively, women were dressed as women anywhere else and there was total freedom.” Which included gay communities in Alexandria, for example, a fact the commentator supported by mentioning Lawrence Durrell’s “Alexandria Quartet Series” (I added “Series” to make it sound “modern,” but apparently the Middle East was much more modern back then than it is now). Durrell knew what he was talking about, since during World War II, he served as press attaché to the British embassies in Cairo and Alexandria.
What happened, and how did it happen? If I did extensive research I would probably find out, although that is not the point. The problem is, why are we always ready to give up hope and happiness? How can we get so involved in misery and let it carry us
