As more of my cognition returns to me in waves, I am able to think back on things from long ago more easily. Mostly memories of memorable things, and it’s almost as if my brain suppresses the painful ones to protect me. I realize that’s a super odd statement, but it’s a truthful one. My brain is weird, and with all it’s been through it does all sorts of weird stuff.
Anyway, today I was thinking back on a Spanish class I took when I finishing my Bachelors. There have been a handful of men that I have seen up close where I was dumbstruck by what they looked like, and frankly how pretty they were. This professor was no exception. But once I got over his good looks I remember appreciating how interesting he was. We did the most interesting things in his class as well. He challenged us on a regular basis and I learned quite a bit of Spanish that stored itself in this brain of mine. We learned about and discussed Spanish culture as much as we did pronouns, and one day he assigned each student a small group and a country where we had to research the healthcare for that country. He was well traveled and spoke multiple languages, and I remember being dumbfounded again, fresh from two brain bleeds, as he spoke of countries that cared enough about their citizens to offer them healthcare from birth. What a concept! I was living in a town where when I became dizzy and forgot how to ride my bike and went to the ER they didn’t know what hydrocephalus was.
In the United States at the present time we are asking ourselves and each other some hard questions. Are we equal? Does every person have value from the time they are in the womb until they pass away?- Not just the most wealthy, or celebrities in Hollywood in their mansions that complain about quarantining. Why is it okay to open public schools and not private? Are we really one nation under God when we do nothing to help each other-let alone the most vulnerable among us-and throw up our hands and wail when we are asked to wear a mask so the health system isn’t completely decimated and so that people that we and others love don’t die? Why is our military budget astronomical and our people are starving, homeless, and do not have the means to care for themselves as the economy gets worse by the day? Is the stock market indicative of a fabulous economy when people can’t keep their lights on? Where are our priorities?
I long for the United States that lives in my heart. A kind and prosperous place of equal opportunity where people have value at all stages of their lives. Perhaps this will come to fruition in my lifetime. I can pray that it does. ❤️