Honey, I shrunk the kids brain!
Friends tell me that God has
a plan, but I’m not so sure. God’s spontaneity hints that all plans are subject
to change. People turn to God for solutions. Maybe that is not God’s plan. The
willingness of God to reply to prayer with the certainty of a bank’s cash
machine is told in the book of God that has shaped Western ideas and ideals.
A listener flicks the radio
on without thinking of Marconi. Another hops into a car and drives to work
without recourse to Henry Ford, and images of the Wright brothers are surely
outnumbered by images of Jesus, Mary or maybe the Buddha when passengers settle
down for a long flight.
The notion of God as creator,
inventor or developer leads to another notion, that God is available 24/7 to grant
prayerful requests. Requests for a new radio aren’t sent to Marconi. The
Wrights are not invoked to fix airborne wrongs.
As soon as I learned to read,
a Bible story book with grand pictures of David and his slingshot and other
excitements was on a table next to my bed. Bibles have been within easy reach
ever since, including my favorite, the New Revised Standard Version, in print
and on Kindle. What I was taught about scripture in 1929 gave me a living
foundation, and appreciation of ongoing scholarship. In 1929 I learned what was
commonly known about the Bible, even as I also learned how to assemble a
crystal radio and how to enjoy the rumble seat in my Aunt Addie’s coupe.
I was born with all of the
parts God planned for baby boys. We humans have evolved slowly. We have a lot
more evolution ahead if we’re to understand God. Atheists have given up on this.
They wonder why God wouldn’t have started people out with brains prestuffed, as
the marketers might say, with everything required to understand the divine. I
wonder, too, and meanwhile enjoy the encounters God thinks I can handle. Kids
curled up on their kindergarten sleeping rugs don’t even know what there is to
know.
They will find out that if
God has a plan, it will not be the same for each of them. Some will be born in
lands of rice, some in places of wheat and corn, others maybe among coconuts
and oranges, some of one race, some of another, some sick and some well, some
into wealthy families and some will be poor. They will hear that all men are created
equal. It will be true only where theory has been given the power of law.
Not so long ago there were no
bumper stickers because automobiles had not been invented, but posters and
pamphlets announced that God is good, God is love, two claims found in all
religions if you look carefully. God frees people from being automatons, mere
consumers acting out a placid puppetry, and lets them figure out how to deal
with matters of health, joblessness, hunger, warfare, humor, family, religion,
education and art. God offers to forgive the errors of folks who also forgive.
That catches my attention, and the attention of others who also are
error-prone. God is known as Mind, Love, Father/Mother, Holy One, Holy Trinity,
the Word and as other words of wonder.
Maybe people are turned loose
to work out their own lives, whatever their gifts and misfortunes. Humankind
need not feel embarrassed because there’s such a big hole in understanding the
patterns of life. After all, black holes are a shifting challenge to the brains
of the brainiest among us.
That category does not
include the brain I have, because I have a disease called multiple system
atrophy (MSA). It causes atrophy, or shrinking, of the brain.
Robin Leach wrote about the
passing of an MSA patient in the Las Vegas Sun last Friday. "Iron
Chef" star Kerry Simon, he wrote, “had fought a brutal, 2-year
debilitating fight against the hideous brain disease Multiple System
Atrophy.”
I’m one of the lucky ones,
still telling about my diagnosis a dozen years after my neurologist gave it a
name. Luck is sometimes lucky, sometimes not so lucky. Here in Illinois, where
I live, a State Lottery winner of any prize greater than $25,000 is given an
IOU. The legislature of this financially suicidal state has not approved a
budget, and the treasurer cannot write big checks.
As a 90-year-old MSA patient I try to avoid
unlucky falling, choking, mumbling and the like.
A lot of effort has gone into
the study of multiple system atrophy since an online support group was
established by the Vanderbilt Autonomic Dysfunction Center in 1995. Several
dedicated, knowledgeable volunteers lead the support group. Two who are
best-known as moderators are:
Pam Bower: NS Canada pbower@accesscable.net
Vera James: CA USA fvjames@aol.com
Medscape defines MSA as “an
adult-onset, sporadic, rapidly progressive, multisystem, neurodegenerative
fatal disease of undetermined etiology, characterized clinically by varying
severity of parkinsonian features; cerebellar, autonomic, and urogenital
dysfunction; and corticospinal disorders.”
Is your calendar within
reach? October 3 is World MSA Day. You can make a world of difference.
