LH>You are merely in the category of the non-soldier, LH> non-mortician, and non-old. and only a soldier, a mortician, someone older than a certain age, can know what it is like to be one of those things? ----- Original Message ----- From: Lawrence Helm To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 8:13 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Superman Returns But you can't know that you won't joke about dementia when you get as old as I because you aren't that old yet. You are merely in the category of the non-soldier, non-mortician, and non-old. My mother died of dementia as well. I know a number of people who "fear it," but they nevertheless joke about it, e.g., their "senior moments." And now that I think about it, surely it is healthier to joke about an imagined threat than to fear it. In some cases fear and worry can bring about, as a self-fulfilled prophecy, the thing worried about and feared - at least I encountered that argument while studying Mark Twain in my youth, esp Roughing It. Lawrence ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Judith Evans Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 11:51 AM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Superman Returns How much younger I am than you is not relevant to whether or not I like jokes about Alzheimer's. LH>It isn't a non-sequitur if as I assume, people in a dangerous LH>situation such as soldiering or people who are in an LH>unpleasant industry such as morticians joke about LH>what would normally, i.e., by people not so employed, LH> be considered unpleasant and unfitting. But it is a fact LH>that they do. It is also a fact that old people (who are by LH> definition in a dangerous situation) joke about dementia. Clearly my mother, who died of dementia and in her last decades, long before she developed it, feared it, was not old. Judy Evans, Cardiff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.8/380 - Release Date: 30/06/2006