Le Monde Fond (the World is Melting)

So much has happened in this past week I don't know where to begin!

1. The formerly fundamentalist Islamic Foreign Minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, was elected president of the ostensibly secular country.

2. Embattled Attorney General of the U.S., Alberto Gonzales resigned.

3. The presence of highly-volatile Hydrogen Sulfide gas has seriously impeded Western-friendly Kazakh oil drilling operations in the Caspian Sea, upsetting otherwise stable oil markets worldwide.

4. The UN Atomic energy agency's assessment of Iran's nuclear capability has effectively preempted the work of other reputable agencies ... which may not be such a good thing if Iran is hiding a stockpile of weaponized nuclear material from the West.

All-in-all, the world appears to be melting (again).

EDIT 9:15 P.M., September 3: the UN Atomic Energy agency to which I'm referring is the IAEA and it's actual relationship to the UN is still unclear to me. Sorry, kids.

The Myth of Sudden Death

People tend to fabricate futures for themselves at the chewy center of this hard reality.

The realization that few lives end peacefully is almost impossible for most people to fathom rationally.

I know because, most people can't EVEN accept the reality of MY condition: multiple sclerosis resulting in serious neuro-motor impairment for life.

My very presence disturbs people's clearly-defined view of a quick and painless end.

The problem for me is not mortality, but longevity.

Due to my family's history of extreme longevity...I will probably have to deal with M.S. well into my 90s! (that is if I'm not struck by a moving car while attempting to cross the street!)

As people marvel at my impetuousness in remaining mobile, they also seem to think I need help ALL THE TIME!

The truth is that most people are ideologically disabled and they don't even know it.

Death is rest...it's the living that's hard. I appreciate the desire to help, but I find that coordinating novices into helpful roles without compromising my "person" is almost impossible.

Maybe my life is in vain.

Why The World?

Newcomers to this page often ask why I don't do anything about the problems over which I ruminate.

The simple answer is that I'm relatively powerless to act in any significant way...my feeling is that someone who does have the power to act will understand what specific matters need to be considered in order to act responsibly, and make suggestions about moving forward.

Unfortunately, I'm discovering (as I suspected) that most of these matters are themselves so complicated that even the people closest to the problem don't know what to do.

This will appear defeatist to some, but acknowledgment of the facts is NEVER defeatist, and in fact may result in new ideas that had remained unconsidered previously.

Am I blindly hoping that a light-bulb will pop in the mind of the reader? I guess so.