[Oe List ...] Ken Gilbert is shifting gears

[Isobel and Jim Bishop]

Dear Adam and Gayle,
In the midst of thinking of Ken  and Fred  in their present, and  
remembering Stan in his leaving this community; your humour comes as  
a great treat.!    So thank you for making me laugh, even with  
sadness around me.
We can rely on youth to set us straight!
Our very good wishes from the South...

Isobel BIshop.  ( we have been having strange weather, and know that  
the United Kingdom has struggled with huge, unprecedented floods.)
On 24/11/2009, at 2:56 AM, Adam Thomson wrote:

> From Adam & Gayle Thomson, Dover UK
>
> We are thinking about Ken.
>
> As Ruth has implied, humour is part of the healing process. All we  
> can do for now is share the following:
>
> This has just appeared in our local church magazine (so I thought  
> it OK to share it with a "religious" forum...)
>
> The questions below were set in last year's GCSE (General  
> Certificate of Secondary Education) exams in Swindon, Wiltshire (UK).
>
> These are GENUINE answers from 16-year-olds.
>
> Q. Name the four seasons.
> A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
> Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to  
> drink.
> A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large  
> pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
> Q. How is dew formed?
> A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
> Q. What causes the tides in the oceans?
> A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water  
> tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the  
> moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the  
> fight.
> Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on?
> A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well  
> endowed.
> Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections?
> A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
> Q. What are steroids?
> A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
> Q. What happens to your body as you age?
> A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
> Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
> A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
> Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes?
> A. Premature death.
> Q. What is artificial insemination?
> A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow.
> Q. How can you delay milk turning sour?
> A. Keep it in the cow.
> Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised?
> A. The body is consisted into 3 parts - the brainium, the borax and  
> the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax  
> contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the  
> five bowels: A, E, I, O and U.
> Q. What is the fíbula?
> A. A small lie
> Q. What does 'varicose' mean?
> A. Nearby.
> Q. What is the most common form of birth control?
> A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.
> Q. Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean section'?
> A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome.
> Q. What is a seizure?
> A. A Roman Emperor.
> Q. What is a terminal illness?
> A. When you are sick at the airport.
> Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
> A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like  
> umbrellas.
> Q. Use the word 'judicious' in a sentence to show you understand  
> its meaning?
> A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.
> Q. What does the word 'benign' mean?
> A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
> Q. What is a turbine?
> A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head.
> That's all, folks.
>
> I hope Ken Gilbert can enjoy these. Our thoughts are with him.
>
> Adam.
>
> At 18:22 20/11/2009, you wrote:
>
>> Hello dear friends,
>>
>> Ken enjoys the humor coming his way, but especially photos of each  
>> of you. If you haven’t been able to send a hard copy photo of  
>> yourself, I am now able to receive and print an electronic photo.  
>> So, if you are able, please keep photos of yourself coming. They  
>> are much appreciated.
>>
>> I am aware of how many of us are coping with loss, change and the  
>> implications of illness. The most recent are Stan Crow’s death and  
>> Jim Jewell’s terminal diagnosis. I carry Fred Lamphear in my  
>> heart. There are others you know about, and several I have heard  
>> about personally as Ken’s medical event hit the air ways. It is  
>> difficult to extend care through email. At the same time I am  
>> grateful for the ways email has kept so many of us connected  
>> across time and space.  I am grateful for the tasks we did  
>> together, the engagement in the world that we were privileged to  
>> participate in and the memories that flow through me.
>>
>> Ken is shifting gears. All parts seem to be working synchronously  
>> together except his sight between his nose and his right ear. As  
>> we watch other people on this floor we are both thankful for the  
>> presence of his “selfness”. Not everybody is so lucky after a stroke.
>>
>> Ken is well enough to be discharged from the hospital but not well  
>> enough to return home. That is the small window through which you  
>> must pass in order to qualify for in-patient rehab work that the  
>> insurance company will pay for. We don’t know if we will  slide  
>> through that window successfully but we will be somewhere within  
>> the next several days, maybe today.
>>
>> Ken is shifting gears. W hope for some good cognitive work that  
>> will wake up new neurons and axons in his brain to work around, or  
>> adapt to, the cut in his field of vision.
>>
>> Best to each of you. Please pass on to whomever. Our network is so  
>> diverse it is hard to know if this covers us all.
>>
>> Ruth
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