Life Events

Sunday, two weeks ago, we received a somewhat frantic phone call from my uncle telling us that my mom (she's 87) has roof damage causing her electrical power to go out. The damage was so bad the company would have to shut off her power until it was repaired. Picturing the worst--huge gaping holes in the roof--my husband and I pushed our visit to her up a week, and arrived at  her home on that Tuesday (a six hour drive away).

We found my mom working outside of her powerless house. She kept wondering why she didn't have power. My mom has dementia; she was diagnosed about 7 months ago. This was going to be an interesting adventure.

The first thing we realized was that we were lucky. Yes the house had damage, but it was not nearly as bad as my uncle had made it out to be. Thanks to facebook, old friends, and the internet, we were able to find a contractor to be at the house on Wednesday, and he got us an electrician. They both worked tremendously hard to get everything fixed by Friday. They were a blessing. In the meantime, we stayed at a hotel because it was 95 during the day with a heat index of 102 or so.

During this time, we realized that while we need to get the house fixed up and made safe. We can't let mom live there anymore. We actually knew it, but having to see it and face it was different. So my mom is up "visiting." She's been here a week, and she may have very little memory, but lord, physically, she's is fairly decent shape for an 87 year old. She's had a cleaning like mad. Our poor garbagemen may have heat stroke when they see the amount of trash bags we have out.

We've told her we want her to stay permanently, but she still asks about going home. Sigh. She can't, and no matter how often, we mention it, it doesn't stick.

In the meantime, life goes on. I need to transfer insurance between states. We now have to take care of two houses (one out of state). We have to take care of ourselves. It's definitely a day by day situation. Errands must be run, bills paid, classes planned, and all the stuff we do.

I find myself looking for patience more than ever. It will all work work out has become my mantra because I have no choice but for it to work out.

On the title

One of my favorite quotes from literature comes from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." A large rambling anthe of a poem, "Song of Myself" covers a wide span of ideas and concepts, but my favorite line (and there are a large number of them) is, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes.” I love this line because it speaks to human potential. 

I chose it for the title of this blog because we all contain multitudes. We contain a multitude of selves, ideas, concerns, loves, and so forth. I know I certainly contain multitudes, and often contradictory ones. For instance, I am both a teacher and a student. I am a wife and staunch feminist, and so forth. I think this is the human condition to contain multitudes. 

In this blog I hope to share some of the multitudes that make up this one human. Your multitudes may vary. I may post essays. I may post snippets. I may post photos. I may post papers I write for class. I may store ideas for teaching. I may ruminate on many things. My ideas and my thoughts may be contradictory, so what? HUman do hold contradictory ideas because as Whitman posits we contain multitudes. 

Test post

This is a test post so I can see what I am getting into.