December 15th 2015

Time to leave matters material to one side for a while. The ultimate aim of the Center Parcs project is to make major profit for the promoters and jobs for the boys. This philosophy has its merits!

Over the Christmas period it is traditional to spend some time watching old movies. I particularly like this aspect of the Yuletide as both The Prodigal and Patience are very fond of a good movie, new or old. The concept of new and old combined seems somehow to suit us.

In the days past we watched two movies together both of which were excellent and on the same subject. One was called “Iris” and the other “Still Alice”. Two serious films with three marvellous actresses stealing the show. Both films were on the subject of Alzheimer’s disease which condition must be a consideration for all old fogies like the Prodigal. It is generally considered that the major contributing factor in acquiring the condition is one of genetics.

The week before my father passed on he was visited by a neighbour who owed him a small debt for many years. The old man reminded him after about five minutes of the visit. If the father is anything to go by I should be safe for a while. Be that as it may.

“Still Alice” depicts the history of the development of dementia in Doctor Alice Howland, a university professor of linguistics who shows signs of Alzheimer’s during a lecture. The condition is diagnosed and the story of its progression is brilliantly depicted by Julianne Moore with Alec Baldwin as the perfect foil.

Moore's performance was incredible and she won every honour that can be bestowed on an actress, for her portrayal of an Alzheimer’s sufferer, including the Academy Award for Best Actress. Baldwin was just right for the understanding husband and total devotee. I remember him starring with Sean Connery in the classic film “The Hunt for Red October”.

One of the more poignant scenes in the movie was when Alice had to inform her three children that the particular strain of Alzheimer’s she had developed was familial. How do you tell your children that you may have transmitted a life sentence of suffering to them and the following generation? I normally look at movies to be amused, entertained or distracted. I rarely watch films that make me think on a broad basis about the negative possibilities that might be around the next corner. I tend to think ‘positive’ as it can be argued that the whole world as we know it runs on confidence fuel.

The other film on the same theme was entitled “Iris”. The Prodigal believed that this particular film might be about some of the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, probably my favourite artist. I always liked Vincent because of the childlike presentation of his wonderful paintings and because he was, like myself, more than a shade insane.

‘Irises’ was painted while Vincent van Gogh was living at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, in the last year before his death in 1890. It was painted before his first attack at the asylum.  He called the painting "the lightning conductor for my illness" because he felt that he could keep himself from going insane by continuing to paint. No such luck for me!

The movie in question, was however, was the biography/memoir of Iris Murdoch written by her partner John Bayley. The acting in this movie is brilliant by all four of the main characters. Iris is played by Kate Winslet in her younger years and Judi Dench when she was older and developing Alzheimer’s disease. Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent play as opposites to Iris in the two different eras of her life.

The acting all round is mesmerising and the ladies in particular are in a different league to the norm. The male leads are so convincing that they might have been played by the same man at different stages of his life. Both of the ladies were nominated for Academy Awards and Jim Broadbent won the Oscar for his performance as Iris’s carer and caretaker in the latter stages of her life.

This disease is obviously very destructive and must be almost unbearable to the family of the sufferer. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. That might not be as big a handicap as one might imagine. When  the disease progresses, symptoms include problems with language, disorientation to the extent that the sufferer gets lost in familiar surroundings, inability to look after oneself, bouts of foul humour and unpredictable behaviour. This often culminates in in loss of the will to continue existing. Gradually and with accelerating momentum the condition declines resulting in withdrawal from reality as we know it. Eventually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death.

The average life expectancy following diagnosis is five years. The question the Prodigal asks is this. Is the effect of the disease as the medical profession knows it and the family and observers see it perceived in the same way by the sufferer? How can we see any situation but from our own perspective? Can we ‘look inside your head’?

Remember “Where do you go to my lovely”. Peter Sarstedt….1969.

Having considered all of the norms about Alzheimer’s I decided to do a little speculation of the mind. Supposing we are not quite right in our observation and speculation in regard to Dementia? We always judge from our own perspective.

When we make a decision about an animal we always bring our flawed human perspective to bear. But do we really know what’s what or is the expansive power of our mind capacity restricted by a multiplicity of extraneous factors, each one as useless as the previous.

It should be remembered that to think the unthinkable is not popular even if it’s true or likely to have some merit. Copernicus was ridiculed when he conceived of a universe that was beyond the visible. Fillipo Bruno had no evidence of his belief in a greater universe but forwarded the argument that since God was infinite the universe must also be so to reflect the magnitude of the Creator’s thinking and actions. He was set on a bed of faggots by a band of faggots and had a very early Guy Fawkes Day all of his own on February 16th 1600.

Nine years after the burning at the stake of Bruno, Galileo Galilei proved with a telescope with a magnifying factor of 30 that in fact both Copernicus and Bruno were correct.

The Prodigal got the notion that perhaps as one develops dementia one might be given choices. I don’t know and neither do you!

Who decides what truth is? Who decides what is truth?  Is truth always a compromise as green is the median of the rainbow while red is a lie and violet is the truth? Are all things black and white or merely shades of grey? Who knows but the reality is that while all men of virtue might strive to find the truth few welcome it when they stumble upon it.

As Jack Nicholson said in the film ‘A Few Good Men’  “You can’t handle the truth!” Maybe he was right. As my very first, and still only wife used to say “The truth when told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.” Somethings are absolute like death, the elements, real history which never contains the truth and probably the law of gravity.

If there is absolute truth then it follows that there must exist absolute notions or standards of right and wrong. We all know that this is impossible. When people are asked questions today about whether such and such situation is the real one they very often reply ‘absolutely’. Bullshit! I remember many years ago a righteous man asked my father why he worked and drew social welfare as the righteous man deemed this immoral. My father said “Is it right to feed my eight children on less than enough when I can feed them sufficiently if I work and draw the dole”. What is right? What is truth?