What would it be like to be trapped in a body with no way to communicate?  I'm in the middle of watching a movie  right now in which the story is told from that perspective (The Diving Bell & the Butterfly.  It's French with English subtiltles). 

(Sometimes I watch movies like that.  5 minutes here, 15 minutes there, when I have a little time)  I haven't finished the flick yet so maybe shouldn't rate it yet but so far I think it's brilliant.

45-yr-old Jean-Do is in this state, having survived a massive stroke that has left him with the the use of nothing but his left eye.  Before that he was the handsome editor of a very popular fashion magazine. He's very attractive to and attracted to lots of beautiful women.  Now he finds himself unable to so much as tell his caregivers to go away and let him die.

He journeys from that self-pitying state of mind to learning how to communicate using that one eye and finding how precious and full life can be, even for him.  He still has full use of his mind, including memories and imagination.

We've all heard people say that if they ever get into a situation like that, they'd want to go ahead and die.  But how do they know until they've been there and tried to survive?

Truth or Delusion?

I revisited some of the videos of Jeremiah Wright's rantings about the US government's successful efforts to keep the Negro race down, infect them with HIV, etc. etc. , this in light of the rantings of Father Pfleger in the same church last week, but that's not what I want to talk about here.

Barack Obama at first defended Wright and said that the church was not particularly controversial.   (I see that he today has officially resigned from membership of that non-controversial church)  Some of the members were quoted as saying that Wright's comments weren't controversial, it was just the truth about being black in America.  Is this a way that many black people in America view their prospects for success and freedom in this country?  Gosh I hope not. 

Light Show

Please take a look at this video.  My son-in-law and his 2 brothers are computer and electrical engineer types.  They spent a bunch of time and a good bit of cash building this at one of their houses and choreographing the display to 3 different recordings.  They have the music pieces being transmitted so that you can hear it by tuning on the FM radio.  My daughter says it is attracting a lot of traffic.  I'm impressed.

My First Granddaughter, Julia Hall

"I liked it better swimming in the warm dark cave, although it was starting to get a little crowded."

Soon, but not yet.

Baby Julia hasn't made it out of the tunnel yet.  I guess I'll find out after church how everything is.  Interesting side note,  the other grandma is re-marrying today.  Baby & grandma, same birthday & anniversary.