Skip to main content
Post a Comment

A Manly Response to Disease

Some illnesses have more negative emotional repercussions than others, and some are more amenable to direct action than others.

I am not a traditional male but did grow up in a stoic family, and because of negative dynamics, we didn't discuss feelings. I've overcome many of the negatives of my upbringing, but keep much to myself, and can occasionally surprise my spouse when I do say something negative, or that something bothers me.


That said, I've had Type 1 diabetes for the past 43 years, and the attitude that has most helped me is the hard-nosed stoic that works against the feelings of failure that can accompany illness. One chooses to do better, be better, in the face of threat. Talking about it wouldn't have helped much.


But I realize that isn't the same for everyone, or all illnesses.


When one is young, the disease is controllable, and life is not ideal, a tough attitude can help, but as one ages, there are fewer options for change, and illness can be disruptive to a settled life, giving a rise to fears about our mortality, losing our life along with losing the joy of others. This is when talking is likely most helpful, dealing with a situation where the options are few and the possibilities unsettling.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/well/live/a-manly-response-to-disease.html#commentsContainer&permid=109323265:109323265



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Meanings of Ender's Game

In response to an Ender's Game discussion (Goodreads), with a link from Reddit, I posted the following: Much of the Reddit stream seems to focus on military tactics, or the lack thereof, used by the Ender, but who reads Ender and thinks it about military tactics, except the 20-year old grunt that started the thread? For a book written in the 80's, then edited in the early 90's, it seems more prophetic, with its use of game immersion, remote military operations and portable computing. Then when you think about the use of children in military games, one can think somewhat more deeply about sociopolitical indoctrination.  The series itself becomes a broader exploration of empathy and foreign culture.  The criticism seems more like the problem of a man with a hammer, who thinks every problem is solved by hammering, but even worse, every problem is about hammering. An additional post, regarding suspension of disbelief: Some people commented on the suspension of disbelie...
Post a Comment
Read more

Accomplishments of Mayor de Blasio (as of December 2014)

I realized that de Blasio's accomplishments go unnoticed, primarily because affluent white people do not benefit from them. The benefits the mayor has brought are often corrections to the abuses of Bloomberg's, along with prior mayors', policies: Policing The NYPD conducts fewer stop-and-frisks. The city dropped its stop-and-frisk appeal. NYPD officers are starting to use body cameras. New York police officers are being retrained. Carrying a small amount of weed will probably result in a ticket, not an arrest. Teenage inmates are no longer put in solitary confinement at Rikers Island. The city has settled with the “Central Park Five.” Poverty There are 23 new homeless shelters in the city There's a new rent subsidy program for homeless families. More public housing units are available to homeless families. Traffic Pedestrian deaths are at a record low. The speed limit was lowered from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour. There are harsher ...
1 comment
Read more

The Right to Write - NYTimes.com

In an article,  The Right to Write - NYTimes.com , I commented on the right to write, since writers are sometimes questioned on the validity of their writing, e.g., Harriet Beecher Stowe with Uncle Tom's Cabin: One, people always have the right to write, but readers concurrently have the right to reject said writing. Much personal criticism of depictions from writers is whether the depiction seems valid or plausible, but even that is an exercise in empathy, since it requires one to experience that depiction ideationally.  Two, there is a streak in Americans, and maybe anyone, that states that you cannot understand 'my pain', usually the death of a child or some horrific personal lose. Over a longer term I have sensed that people most easily accept empathy if it is expressed by someone with similar experiences, an aspect I believe is part of human nature. I find both irksome, since they deny empathy.
Post a Comment
Read more