For those who Mourn: the Gift of the Resurrection

  This Christmas present was delivered an estimate 2017 years ago, to those who mourn.
   If we could give gifts to the different afflicted groups -- the homeless, the refugees, etc. -- to solve their afflictions, what would we give to those who mourn the loss of loved ones?
   The gift of the resurrection.
    The same who came as a Babe in Bethlehem was resurrected after his death maybe 33 years later, bringing resurrection to all mankind. Those who die will live again. If we would comfort those who mourn, we need but to share the hope and dream of the resurrection. We need but to encourage faith in the gift of living again, a gift given by our Savior.
 

A Gift for Them that Would also Benefit all Mankind

   The boxes underneath the Christmas tree for the homeless, for the prisoners, and for the immigrants might have gone a long ways toward solving their problems.
   I do wonder about the gift for the mentally disillusioned, however. Selected at the last minute, without much advanced thought, did it provide much in the way of solution, or was it just a gift for the sake of giving a gift?
   I must first tell you what is going on. It is Christmas Day, 2017. Gifts for each group of needy people have been boxed and place under the tree, and are being opened. Yes, this is an attempt to solve a great number of the world's problems. The idea is to come up with answers to each group's problems, and then to box them up and place them under the tree as presents.
   Let's proceed inside, then, to where all those with mental disconnections are opening their present. The gifts for the homeless, and for the prisoners and for some others have come with much advanced thought. Not so for those with mental differences. I'm even struggling for what to call this group, not having thought that through in the past.
  They pick up the box, tear off the wrapping, and inside? Two gifts. One is the gift of choice and the other the gift of understanding -- both to be understood by others and for them to understand what is happening to themselves. These are marvelous gifts, despite coming from a last-day, last-minute dash to the store.
  Let those with mental situations choose for themselves whether they will return to reality. If they remain in disillusionment, bear with them, be understanding. If they choose to come out of their conditions, celebrate that with them. Realize that even as it is with so many things, there will be relapses. For some of these, their condition is much the same as that of those with substance addictions. Understand that. Theirs, too, is an addiction; It is an escape. Just as a person seeks relief in drugs and such, so a person can find relief in separating from reality.
  The Christmas present also included a map, showing how the human mind goes about making decisions. In situation such-and-such, it will reach this decision, and so forth. Never had the thought process been mapped before. Among the principles? One, The mind selects answers based on what will best please the person. We believe what we want to believe, in other words. Two, The mind often locks on the first information in, becoming biased toward that viewpoint at the exclusion of others. Three, We believe others and seek to please them by what we decide.
   If the person with mental situations can understand how the thinking process goes, they can understand where they are going astray, and thus have better choice in deciding if they want to change their thinking process.
   I have said I have not given much advanced thought to this Christmas gift. Actually, I have often thought on how the thinking process should be mapped out. But, I have not thought of making the map just to benefit those with mental disconnections. (Although I have noticed we all have some of the same mental disconnects that those with mental challenges have.)  I think it would be great to have the map, period. All humanity would benefit from it. I have thought to try to map the decision-making process out, but have never taken enough time to really sit down and do it. Anyone could make this map. We've all lived on earth and can analyze how we arrive at decisions. We can look at others and understand what is behind their decisions.
  With mapping out the thinking process, we could predict what we will do and what decisions we will make in each situation. It would be a break-through thing in the history of man to have the thought process modeled and mapped out.
   Such a Christmas present. I think it a marvelous one.

The Day NIfBoS went Under the Christmas Tree

   It was Christmas Day 2017, and the elderly of the world awaited their Christmas present. The homeless had opened their package, and the prisoners and orphans and mental patients had each opened theirs. In fact, I believe most every group of needy had opened their package except the elderly and the sick.
  It was noon before the gift bearer even made it there. Dressed as Santa, he came down the hall a ho-ho-hoing. Trailing after him was a chorus, all decked out in the brightest green costumes. "Good tidings of great joy we bring, to you and all your kin," they sang.
  Santa sat down next to the fireplace. He sighed heavily. "I sure wish I were bringing you good tidings," he said. This is the day we celebrate the Savior's birth, and that is 'good tidings,' but other than that . . ."
  He paused, a tear welling up in his eye. "I'm thinking I should take a gift away from you, instead of giving you one," he said. He looked around at the elderly, many of them stuck in beds, flat on their backs. They lived that way day in, and day out. "Yes, I need to take a present away, if I'm going to do you any good."
  He dabbed at his eye. "Your prescriptions, your painkillers -- they are opioids. We, as society, do you no good by sending you out of your lives strung out on drugs. We send you out addicted to drugs, and they often cause depression. Sometimes, they cause psychosis, and you end up accusing folks of things that aren't true."
  He paused, looking around, again. "A real Christmas present would be to get you off these drugs. A real Christmas present would be to let you live the end of your lives without being addicted, without being depressed, and still without being in pain. A lot of you suffer from brittle bones, and from lack of coherency." He looked around, yet again. "I just wish I could make these things better."
  He suddenly slapped his knee and jumped to his feet. "I know what we'll do. You might end up continuing on those opioids for a while, and with bad backs for a while, but we're going to do something. We're going to organize something, and we're going to make it about as important as any organization we have. We'll call it NIfBoS. That's short for the National Institute for Betterment of Seniors. You've seen how hard we, as a society, can press for a cure to cancer. This will be the same. We will push with all our heart to discover how to return brittle bones to health, how to make it so those of you dwindling your lives away in beds can hop up and walk around normally. And, we're going to go after pain-killers, just the same, making it a national priority to discover something that doesn't addict and doesn't cause depression. We're going to seek to cure Alzheimer's Disease like we've never done before. We're going to make the lives of our seniors a priority, a pursuit, and a dream, and a cause of which we will not let go of."
   He stopped, for a moment, gazing with fixed eyes at the people. "It's Christmas, isn't it? Funny, that this is the day we celebrate the birth of a person who brought resurrection -- renewed life -- to all the earth's residents. What we'll do for you might not be resurrection, but living longer and happier is a little bit of that. Funny, too, how the Savior went around healing the sick and afflicted. We sure would like to do that with you."
  He leaned over and picked up a well-wrapped present. "NIfBoS," it said on the side. He carried it carefully over and placed it under the Christmas tree.

The Prisoners Received a Wonderful Gift Christmas Day 2017

  Christmas Day 2017 was a wonderful day for the prisoners across the country. They woke up to find a new penal system underneath the Christmas tree.
   "Love, everyone," the card was signed. "Love from all the world."
   And, if you will pause to learn what was in the new penal system, you will note that love is what it was all about -- that and repentance. It had always been that the prisoners' release date largely depended on the length of the sentence. But now, when the prisoner reached the end of his sentence, he still could not be released -- unless it was judged he had repented.
   These days, you had things to learn and programs to go through, and your release date wasn't just a matter of reaching the end of your sentence. It was more of a graduation.  Go through the steps of repentance, achieve what was required, master all the things they wanted you to master --
  And, you graduated.
   But, I neglect to tell you about how love was part of all this. To begin with, no one was hired at the prison unless they appeared to have the skill of loving others. The help-wanted ads might as well as read: "Warm and loving people needed. Must be able to smile as you talk to convicts. Must be willing to show interest in their lives. Must be willing to become their friends."
   But, it wasn't just the prison workers. Volunteers were brought in. The whole system depended on such a large of a body of volunteers that you have ever seen. Each prisoner was assigned at least one friend, a person who came in and visited regularly with the prisoner. And, before someone could be approved to be one of these volunteers, they were screened to show they had good capacity to love, care and teach the inmates.
  Here was the idea: If the only friends and influences the prisoner had were their fellow prisoners -- if we limited it to just them -- then the prisoners would be sorely lacking in good influences. To change that, it was necessary to bring in good influences. And, whenever possible, those coming in were to be people who would maintain the relationships after prison. So, being a neighbor to the inmate was preferred.
   Another thing the new prison system did was to provide family training. The prisoner's family was brought in, and the interaction between the prisoner and the family member was observed and both the prisoner and the family members were taught what they were and were not doing right.
  Things like tearing each other down, bullying, and so forth. Things like giving compliments and praising.
  Well, I don't have time to tell you everything about the new prison program. But, I think you can see from what I have written that it was a wonderful Christmas present for the prisoners.

Under the Tree: The World's Christmas Present for the Homeless

  What wonderful gifts for the needy there were under the tree that Christmas Day in 2017 -- gifts from the whole world for the homeless, for the refugees, for the sick, for those in prison, and for those whose reputations had been tarnished.
   For the homeless: Acceptance. The world ceased herding them away, shifting them from locations where they weren't welcome, to those where they were less visible. Businesses, residents, and communities had not wanted them, fearing their dirtiness and their crime. But, that changed. The homeless were made harmless. A new program, called Friends Behind Badges (or Buddies Behind Badges), flooded the homeless districts with police officers. It was hard for a drug sale to go down when the police were just steps away. But, these were not ordinary police officers. Hired just for this occasion, they were picked for their jobs because of their compassion. They didn't just stand on the street corners, waiting for crimes to go down so they could hustle someone off to jail. No. they mingled with the homeless, befriending them, joking with them, and playing basketball on make-shift basketball courts set up in the middle of the streets.
   Social workers? There were other things going on besides Buddies Behind Badges. Social workers didn't wait for the homeless to show up in their offices, but rather went into the homeless districts and sought them out. But, what impressed me was not the paid social workers, but the volunteers who came. Unpaid and with smiles on their faces, they too mingled with the homeless, offering friendship, care,  comfort, and direction. Some brought work, bringing the things needed to make paper flowers and showing the homeless how and paying them for it. Others came early in the morning, seeking workers for construction and yard work and house cleaning.
  I told you the streets had been blocked off didn't I? (Well, I implied as much when I said basketball courts were laid out in the middle of the streets.) So, they brought in entertainment to fill the streets. Comedians took time to come down and perform. Musicians performed. Actors played portions of their plays in these streets.
  Although there were a lot of neat things going on with the way the homeless were now being treated, perhaps the neatest of all came along about 5 p.m. each day, when cars lined up as people got off work, hustling over to bring the homeless their meals.
  Or, how about later in the evening, when workers walked through the areas they thought the homeless might be, offering to take them into homeless shelters? The thought was that no one needed to sleep on the streets; beds would be found and made available. That, too, was neat. 
  Well, I should like to tell you about the gifts the other needy people received. Come back tomorrow, and perhaps I will. Surely, I can think of gifts for the for the refugees and immigrants, for the sick and the elderly, and for the prisoners.

(Note: The second to the last paragraph was added 12/23/17.)

Flood Seniors with Chiropractic Care?

   So, I wrote that we ought to flood seniors with chiropractic care. Oh, I was careful to say we should exclude those with whom chiropractic care is not a fit, but, nonetheless, I did suggest flooding seniors with availability to chiropractic.
   I still feel that way. Yes, I have backed off on my belief in chiropractic; I don't believe it can do as much good as I previously thought it could. But, I believe it might still bring some benefit.
  I do not know how many seniors would not be a fit for chiropractic care. We look at all those with brittle backs, and we are tempted to say virtually all seniors are outside the circle of chiropractic care. I don't know all the methods of chiropractors, though. I do know there is more than a hard cracking of the spine. There are gentler adjustments. 

We Need Integrated Medicine to Better Care for Bad Backs

  The back is more than a spine, and I find myself wondering if we need doctors trained in three or four disciplines if we want to best care for those with bad backs.
   I wonder if many of those with back problems really have muscle problems more than back problems. If I need  to stand up, is it the spine, itself, that lifts me to my feet? Or, is it the muscles that pull and stretch to lift me into a standing position? I have trouble walking and running and climbing stairs, and they tell me it is because I have a bad back. But, it seems it is the muscles that lift my legs, giving them the strength to walk and run and climb.
   Oh, the back is perhaps as much a part of it as the muscles. But, I wonder if the back sometimes is treated, alone, when the muscles are as much a part of the problem, or more. If I go to a specialist in backs, is he going to treat the spine and overlook the muscles?
  Give me a spine doctor who is a chiropractor, who is a neurologist. Let him (or her) be more than an orthopedic doctor. We need integrated medicine if we are to give the back its best care. The nerves and the muscles and the spine all work together. If all the problems are going to be diagnosed and if the doctor is going to determine which is the key problem and what is the best way to treat it, it seems you must either train him in all the disciplines, or bring three or four doctors together and let them discuss it.
  And, it seems the cleaner answer is to train one person in all the disciplines. If four doctors are weighing in, they would each have to learn the disciplines of the others, anyway, in order to defer to another person's diagnosis.
  Twelves years in medical school then? I don't know, I only know we need to pack all the knowledge about the back into one doctor.
  I think of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, and how one man touches the trunk and thinks it is a snake, and another who touches the leg and thinks it is a pillar like a tree trunk. Our creating medical specialties has its shortcoming. It creates doctors who each are blind to different parts of the problem.