FASCINATING WHAT WE FIND

I’m always distracted when rooting through the office to find a document I’m sure I have but can’t remember where to find it. When I came across a photocopy of one of my letters to the Weekly Guardian from 2008, I just had to read it. And, lo and behold, it was about Alzheimer’s.

Of course, back then, I had no inkling it would take over our future lives. How would I have felt? Disbelieving then devastated by the idea, I imagine. 

Actually my letter wasn’t specifically about AD, it was more about testing on animals. A subject which currently is regularly discussed by those who care to look at the facts in the prevailing situation. We’ve been led to believe that the various vaccines for CV19 have not been tested on animals and are being administered to humans while still in the experimental stages. I do not want to go into the pros and cons of this except to say I trust volunteers are being fully informed of all the risks as required under the Nuremberg Code – my suspicion, they aren’t. Anyway …

As an animal lover, I don’t believe we have the right to use them experimentally or in any other way whatsoever. They are sentient beings with whom we share Mother Earth and are no less important than us. They take their chances in life, so should we. To consider we can put them through all kinds of hell for our benefit simply isn’t morally acceptable to me. I won’t get into the boring argument about food, clothes and other products derived from animals and their bodies, this isn’t the place for that. Most readers will be aware of our diet and lifestyle, although obviously I have no control of what goes on in Leaf’s ward at the hospital, even though they know he’s vegan. I’m naturally concerned about that. We all know hospital food is almost invariably slop and unlikely to be as nutritious as most of us would wish but there is little I can do especially as I’m unable to visit and take organic goodies to him. In the beginning I was able to but since mid-november, that has been impossible.

I just want to slip in here that I wish with all my heart I’d been able to keep him at home but he had become too much for me. Our little visit up-country to see friends in early September confirmed the fact – those friends all pleaded with me to find a good home for him, they saw how difficult he was to care for, especially as I’m not exactly in my prime! I do not feel guilty, only extremely sad. Now he’s incontinent, I would have to have a lot of help. Am waiting for that windfall so I can afford it. You never know!

Back to my letter and the inevitable question – as Leaf has AD, do I feel comfortable that animals were/are being used to test possible treatments? Actually no. I know there are those who are quite happy for any animal – as long as it’s not their pet, of course – being kept in a laboratory and experimented upon. On the other hand, there are those like me, who are absolutely appalled. 

I am aware that virtually all pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and household products have been tested on animals at some stage so do my very best to avoid the most likely. It’s not always possible in our day and age, but being aware, deciding whether we care or not, then, if we do, doing our best is the best we can do. (how about that for a sentence!!) 

Of course, our attitudes to testing on animals boils down to our feelings about life and death, our’s as well as their’s. I remember asking my grandmother about one of my uncles who died at aged six. How did she feel? She told me she was heartbroken but then losing children and dying younger than we do nowadays was accepted. My father was younger than I am when he died, Granny was three years older and my mother was seven years older. Will I last longer than them, who knows. I have no fear whatsoever but, like most of us, would like to die a good death not being kept alive and in horrible pain. Sometimes I think my main concern is leaving a houseful of stuff and masses of documentation for some poor soul to sort out. Having done that three times for others, I know what a business it is. Bloody exhausting. Luckily, I was a lot younger. Perhaps it’s something we should all have to deal with at some stage in our lives. 

This brings me onto hopes for the future. We’re in a transition and none of us know what will happen. We can’t make plans, we can only wait and see. What a dreadful position to be in. Not only that but our freedoms are being eroded at an alarming rate as we are turned against each other according to our acceptance or rejection of the restrictions and procedures being imposed upon us. 

Thank goodness for the Internet to browse. All those fascinating rabbit holes to explore, all that info to sort through. And, of course, all those extraordinary books to read. Leaf used to quote regularly:

‘People say that life’s the thing but I prefer reading.’ Logan Pearsall Smith. 

I thank God daily that I have my eyesight even if my hearing is a bit defective. 

And for those who are also avid readers, here are some splendid reading quotes.

A fun list I found while searching was AWESOME ANAGRAMS and they really are. Were they dreamt up by someone or were they computed in seconds. I’d love to think the former. Enjoy ….

(Now that the UFO files (in the US at least) have been declassified, I am avidly reading ‘The Day After Roswell’ by Colonel Philip J. Corso. By the way, the French records of UFO sightings have been available since 2007 for anyone who’s interested.)