GeneL Needs Our Help!

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Janit wrote: The remark that "it seems to run in the family" was unnecessarily mean. You may not think so, but it was.

I’m going to begin by standing in Markintosh’s corner, and disagree with that assessment. Even more to the point, his remark, at this point, only really scratches the surface of the elephant in the room.

Gene, we’re hundreds of posts in. Most, if not all of them, have been thoughtful, well meaning and carefully considered. But there is an elephant in the room. Maybe two or three.

If I were to take the ‘view from 30,000 feet’, no judgements, only observations, there are a few things that stand out. Needless to say, this is my view, and only my view, as far as I know.

First, from what’s been related to us, there are places where 1+1 do not seem to add up to 2. Beyond that, there are one or two places that, to be frank, as they stand, have some trouble passing the sniff test, at least for me.

But, those things are beyond parsing, or even explaining, in a setting like this. Far more important is mileage. Wear and tear.

You’ve covered even more terrain than me, Gene, and the journey takes its toll on us all. The brakes can start to squeak, the wheels get out of align, the gears don’t shift quite as well as they used to, the steering gets a little sloppy. We get a little broken. We just have to pop the hood and get the work done.

You need help in some ways we can’t give, as much as we’d like to. The man in the mirror needs seeing to. You’re strong enough. You’re brave enough. Keeping taking those small steps, but ultimately the biggest job, as it probably is for all of us, will be getting your internal house in order. Therapy, spiritual counseling, different strokes for different folks, but that’s going to be the real key to winning the war, I’d bet dollars to donuts.