Sometimes, signs pointing to the road to recovery are subject to the mischievous cruelty of vandals. Two days ago, I thought I was on that road. In fact, I was trudging along a country lane that, as I traveled, morphed into an unpaved path that degraded to a trail filled with potholes and, finally, came to an abrupt end. So, I retraced my course and now am in the midst of taking a different route. I have been sleeping inordinately long hours (14 hours night before last, 11 hours last night, and many hours on top of that, in the daytime). I am trying to drink lots of fluids and trying to eat enough to refuel the strength I’ve lost. In my condition, those actions are much more difficult to accomplish than they might seem.
Yesterday, my chemo treatment was cancelled because my oncologist had an emergency. My appointment was rescheduled for a week hence. But, because I was feeling so weak and frail, mi novia arranged for the main office of the cancer center, in downtown Hot Springs, to accept me to get IV fluids and IV steroids. That helped, but I am feel like I am a long way from being back to “normal,” whatever that means in my present state of being. I did not get a chemo treatment, but I doubt my oncologist would have gone forward with it even if she had been available. I just hope I am in reasonable shape to have it administered next week. Ach!
+++
Between feeling miserable, sleeping, and trying to replenish my flagging energy, I’ve been scanning my phone for news (a pointless exercise that simply adds stress to an already stressful situation), playing word games, and scanning Facebook. The vast majority of my Facebook feed is unwanted advertising, bogus “news,” and other content I find more and more unappealing (to put it mildly). So, I think I’ll wean myself from giving that bit of social media so much of my attention. Speaking of social media, and its obvious contributions to today’s explosive political and social decay, I think a time will come—and I hope soon—that Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, etc., etc. will either cease to exist or be restructured to the extent that they cannot be such negative forces in society. Other apps, like TruthSocial and its ilk, should be dissolved or burned. Something(s) must be created to replace the extraordinary good that social media are capable of providing (and have provided), but the bad is far exceeding the good, in my view. But great care must be taken to avoid allowing bad uses to overtake new processes to accomplish necessary good deeds. NextDoor, obviously created with good intent, is an example of an app created with good intent that has been invaded by bad users with bad intent. Instead of being used for neighbors to communicate with/help neighbors, many NextDoor sites are used to berate neighbors who hold different philosophies and opinions. Perhaps social media cannot successful be addressed, though, until society has been cleansed of its pandemic of political disease. There must be a tenable and gently enforceable political and social governance structure, somewhere between absolute freedom and absolute control, that provides ample personal freedoms and adequate public conformity to ensure a stable, reasonably tranquil, kind of society. Perhaps AI will provide an answer…and implement it, whether we like it or not.
+++
I have dozens of ideas for books and stories I would like to write, but I lack the energy and the discipline necessary to write them. So, I’d like others to write them. The work would then be recorded on audio so I can hear them read (my eyesight still sucks). In addition, I would like to see several of them make into films and television series I can watch at home. I’ll need my life extended to give me time to get through them all.
