Presentation
December 9, 2024
Yesterday, Grandma and Grandpa tried to continue our Christmas tradition of telling the story of the birth of Jesus. I would read the story from the Bible, and sometimes ad lib to simplify for the little ones. As I mention a person or an animal in the story, one of the children, starting with the youngest, places the appropriate figurine into their place in the stable — the small wood stable we bought forty years ago. Then, they pick another family member with a big hug who then places the next figurine into the stable. And so it goes until the story is complete with the site of the nativity completed along with it.
As my family has grown up, moved out, and started families of their own, the number of participants has changed, of course.
Something else has changed…
I didn’t make a very professional or polished presentation this year.
I’m in the initial stages of Dementia. From seeing the MRI’s, as the brain itself is withering away from the outside inward, I joke about it saying, “My brain is gradually turning to sawdust!”
Nevertheless, the simplest of chores — from buttoning my buttons to typing on my keyboard — has gone from automatic functions to having to think intensely about doing them.
When I wasn’t aware something was medically wrong, I still was aware that I needed something more than Advanced Spell Check to edit my essays, and AI is more of a hindrance than a help… That “something more” was someone more, Patty, my wife.
By the by, the SpellCheck pops up now in almost every sentence! Sawdust. dang nabbit!
All that said, what’s my point?
Right now, I forget. Seriously. I cannot recall it right now and will have to go start my morning breakfast routine. You won’t know I’m gone, of course, but I’ll be back (hopefully)… unless I stand up and forget why…
It’s a new reality, but God is helping me through it all.
Okay… back with my Shredded Wheat and coffee…
In my Cornell Labor Studies classes I was taught about properly preparing any audio/visual portion of my presentations. Yesterday, two oopsies: I hadn’t pre-read the Bible text (which was cumbersome), and the focal point of my presentation (the Nativity scene) was not visible to the entire “audience” (my family), I couldn’t even see it on the other side of the couch!
Patty and I were just discussing my lousy effort, and now, she is not only my Editor-in-Chief, but from now on, she will also have to be my Director/Producer.
All the same, I still forgot the main points I started to write about.. Give me a sec…
(If it weren’t for Jesus’ faithfulness in sticking it out with me, this “sawdust” would be making me very angry and depressed. I feel sorry for my loved ones who are going to have to put up with this cruel condition and the difficulties that come with it…)
Now I remember one thing: We used to decorate our Christmas Tree with the ornaments in the same way.
Looks like it’s going to be a “bad day” for me. A Christian brother on Medium suggested that I journal and share my experience with Dementia. So, you can blame him for any other essay with my bad presentations.
Oh! Another tradition that shouldn’t be forgotten is to make sure I share with any readers at least one Bible verse at the end of my essays:
“No power in the sky above or in the earth below — indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:39, New Living Translation
