Keeping with our theme of laughter, I present today’s joke:
A woman dies and goes to heaven. As she approaches the Pearly Gates, she sees St. Peter standing there waiting for her. When she nears him, he says, “Welcome to heaven. Before I can let you inside, I need you to spell a word.”
“Which word would you like me to spell?”, the woman asks. “Any word you choose,” St. Peter responds. The woman thinks about it for a moment and says, “I’ll spell the word love, L-O-V-E.” To which St. Peter responds, “Welcome to heaven” and opens the gate.
Just as she was walking through, St. Peter asked, “Would you mind watching the gate for me for a few minutes? There’s something I must do, but I promise to be right back.” “Sure,” the woman replies, “What do I do if anyone comes?” St. Peter responded, “It’s very simple. Just ask them to spell a word. If they spell it correctly, let them in.” The woman thought that was simple enough and agreed to do it.
As she’s minding the Pearly Gates, her ex-husband suddenly appears. “What are you doing here?” she asks. “I had a heart attack this morning,” he replies. Remembering the responsibility St. Peter had assigned her, she tells her ex-husband, “Before I can let you into heaven, you need to spell a word.” “What word?”, her ex-husband asks.
To which she replies, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”
When I hear that joke, I think about how we often make things hard on ourselves and others. For example, I’m often stubborn about adopting new technology and methods to help me navigate my day. I see my kids doing everything from their phone; I still pull out my credit card from my wallet. They stay in touch with others through social media. It would probably be a lot easier for them if I were also on social media to stay in touch and remain up to date on what’s happening with everyone. I’m not very good with Facebook and all those other apps, so I’ve been reluctant to use them. Instead I rely on my kids to keep me updated via messaging of anything that’s happening in our family. I’m making their lives harder simply because I haven’t adapted. It’s not because I have Myasthenia Gravis, it’s because I’m lazy….and a bit cantankerous. Cantankerous or not, I don’t have the right to make life harder for others.
Speaking of technology, have you tried AI (Artificial Intelligence)? You can actually have a conversation with a computer and ask it questions. I’ve tried one and it’s pretty fun. You can ask it anything you want and it will reply back with information it’s gathered from the internet. I enjoy it, but I’m still a bit skeptical and sometimes wonder if there isn’t really a little old man sitting behind a curtain somewhere acting like the Great and Wonderful ChatBot, but for the most part, it provides me with valuable information. I digress. Back to the topic.
So what are some of the things I make harder for everyone else? Well, I’ve already admitted I don’t use social media and rely on my family to keep me up to date instead of doing it myself. I also sometimes expect them to accommodate my schedule even when it’s not convenient for them. There are times when my daughters make plans for a family outing and I admit, often my first thought is whether we will be back in time for my 9:00 PM bedtime. I try not to show my concern and ruin everyone’s fun, but the thought always seems to come up. In reality, there’s no reason why I go to bed at 9:00 PM. If something is going on, I can stay up later. I have no right to be so selfish.
What are some of the things I make harder for myself? With Myasthenia Gravis and the other health issues I have, I take a lot of medication. Medication tracking used to be a big problem for me. I was constantly forgetting if I had taken my pills or not. I purchased one of those pill containers that has the seven days of the week and compartments for morning, noon and evening. That helped a little. The problem was there were still days where I’d go to take my evening meds only to discover I had missed my noon dose. The other issue is the container didn’t accomodate the Mestinon I need to take every 4 hours.
Let me explain, I wake up each morning between 5 and 6 AM. I don’t set an alarm unless there’s something important like a plane flight or something that I can’t miss. I just wake up. I guess that’s my body telling me I’m tired of being in bed. I take a Mestinon and my morning pills as soon as I get up. I take another Mestinon at 10:00 AM. I take my noon pills at noon. I take another Mestinon at 2:00 PM. I take my evening pills at 5:00 PM. I take my last dose of Mestinon for the day at 6:00 PM. Can you see why I get confused and mess up my doses?
Someone showed me on my iPhone that there’s a place in the Health App where you can list all your medications and assign dosage times to each. Doing so sets an alarm and if you allow notifications, it will notify you every time you’re due to take your medication. I also have an Apple Watch, so even if I’m not near my phone, I still get notified. After taking the dose, I can click on the notification and mark the dose as taken. At any time, I can check to make sure I’ve taken every scheduled dose. This has saved me numerous times when I couldn’t remember if I had taken a dose or not.
The medicine feature in the Health App helps in another way, as well. Whenever I go to a doctor, I’m always asked for a list of my current medications. All I have to do is pull it up on my phone and it’s right there for the nurse to see. It’s so much handier than carrying around a paper list and trying to keep it updated.
I’m not trying to promote Apple or any other brand of products. I’m just saying what works for me, and if truth be told, I’d be lost without them.
You probably have your own little tips that help you through your day to make life easier for yourself and others. If so, I’d love to hear them. If I can, I’ll share them with others in my blogs.
Instead of making life more difficult for yourself and others, make it your goal to make life easier on everyone, including yourself.
By the way, I had to look up “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“. Yeah, I wouldn’t have made it past the Pearly Gates.