Sleep vs. Asleep

A twelve year-old boy who has recently lost his sight is learning how to use a walking stick for the first time, and a young girl is learning how to steer her wheelchair with a breathing tube. These are two of the first people we meet at Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick. We’re awestruck at how beautiful the facility is, and again when they show us to a private room larger than most Manhattan studio apartments.

There’s a free Sony PlayStation, a complimentary 16” laptop, about 1000 channels of IO digital cable, and a DVD player with access to a tower of recently released movies, and that’s just in Karina’s room! On the floor is every conceivable comfort and type of entertainment and half a dozen restaurants with the availability and choice of a luxury cruise.

After a parade of people introduce themselves and talk about the place, somebody asks Karina what her favorite food is. She makes everyone laugh when she says almost in a whisper, “salmon and broccoli.”

“Fine that’s what’s for dinner then,” a woman says, and sure enough at 5PM sharp, that’s what arrives.

This place is like the movie “Wall-E” where all of humanity has anything they can dream of at the push of a button, except here the kids truly deserve anything they desire while they focus exclusively on getting better or learning to cope. I’m thankful Karina will be completely fine in a few weeks, as I meet kids who will struggle for a lifetime.

Speaking of the blind: Allen called this morning with the latest hate mail from his Facebook page. It sounds a lot like Sean’s "Hate Hannity Hotline," and that makes me smile. People I haven't thought of since the Carter administration miss the humor and focus on the politics. If ignorance is bliss, why are liberals so angry? I could care less - 52 Million people DIDN'T vote for Obama -- but you wouldn’t know it if you’re idiot box is glued to CNN.

I proudly thank the Bush administration for keeping my family, and the rest of us safe for the past 7.5 years. Go ahead and hate the man, but he proved America’s strength without apology. Today the messiah is off on his World Apology Tour. Just don’t apologize on my behalf, or on behalf of the millions of people who have died for you Mr. President.

Newsflash Barry: America WAS born a Christian nation regardless of what you say. Read a history book. In the words of Bob Marley: “If you know your history, you would know where you’re coming from.”

Like the kids here who will have to work hard to learn and grow, it takes some effort to educate ones-self beyond what’s being spoon-fed from the talking heads on the shmuck-box. They won’t explain Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and that Obama taught workshops from the curriculum in Chicago and is presently implementing it like a playbook. And you won’t see it in the NY Times, so at least click here for some excerpts: http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/communism/alinsky.htm

By the way, the NY Times which selectively features gibberish and has more than once aided and abetted the enemy is losing more money than many entire nations’ GDP, but may still have a future in hard copy form….to line bird cages. That is if you want to breed a traitorous, stupid bird that will parrot any crap the White House releases.

One thing the paper can’t selectively refuse to tell you is that the book that sits at the top of it’s own Best Seller list is Liberty and Tyranny, by Mark Levin http://www.amazon.ca/Liberty-Tyranny-Conservative-Mark-Levin/dp/1416562850. You can’t have an intelligent conversation about Constitutional Law and what’s happening today and ignore this book - but what am I saying? Liberals don't read books, they regurgitate talking points fed by other liberals. Reading takes time away from watching television.

The book sits at the top of the NY Times list, because intelligent people still do read. But for those who don’t want to miss Dancing with the Stars, here are the Cliff notes to what’s happening to our country at neck-breaking speed:

"To each according to their needs, from each according to their means." Karl Marx.

“We need to, ya know, spread the wealth around a little.” That’s Barak Hussein Obama.



God made children cute so people wouldn’t kill them. Maybe because she has always been especially difficult, God made Karina especially pretty. Maybe all girls are difficult. They are after all practicing to be somebody’s wife some day.

Wherever we go, especially over the past year, people stare or tell her, or comment to each other when they think she’s out of hearing range. She gets her looks from her mother who people assume was, or is a supermodel. I hate that expression because I imagine an anorexic chic with a flying cape. Here at the Children’s Hospital, with so many seriously hurting kids who will never feel that way, I’m actually feeling a little guilty, almost embarrassed that Karina is so pretty – I know that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s why writing is therapeutic.

I have over the years discovered another mathematic theory – the prettier the girl the crazier - as illustrated by the equation L=P2 (Looks = Psycho-ness squared). For my own safety reasons, I can only say that my wife is a licensed therapist.

Karina does things that really should be set to scary music, and my mom who was and still is very pretty is about as crazy as you can get without the paramedics showing up to drag you away.

She can’t help talking non-stop to everybody she passes. I’ve learned not to be embarrassed by this through sheer shock therapy. You get on an elevator with her and before the next floor she is engaged in conversation. This can be quite amusing because people are so taken off guard that they assume she’s just talking out load to herself and ignore her until she brings it to their attention that she is in fact waiting for a response.

This week, I have repeatedly watched her say something she thought was funny to people that didn’t speak a word of English, interrupt dialogue between a nurse and a doctor because she assumed they were including her in the conversation, and offend a family of orthodox Jews by asking why the Sabbath elevator has to stop on every floor and inconvenience her. She wasn’t serious, but when English is third in line behind Hebrew and Yiddish, you can miss the nuance of the joke.

Mom, maybe try something friendlier, like: “If Ella Fitzgerald married Darth Vader, her name would be Ella Vader.”

My Dad is visiting, and circumstances brought him and mom together for the first time in ten years. Here’s how they got along when I was a kid:

Jeff: “Dad, can we get a dog?”
Dad: “What kind of dog would you like?”
Jeff: “Mom wants and Afghan.”
Dad: “Afgans are stupid dogs. Your mom wants an Afghan because it’s the only kind of dog she’s smarter than.”

Mercifully, they got along well and my dad showed superhuman patience with her. Maybe that’s because he spent the last year recovering from a brain injury after being hit by a van.

I have spent every hour for the past seven days with Karina and it’s been heaven. It’s amazing that you can live four decades and then experience a completely new feeling, and that’s what happens when a man has a little girl.

Karina is shy with people until she gets comfortable, and here with new people talking to her every ten minutes, she’s very cooperative and smiley but especially quiet. When she’s alone again with me and starts talking like herself I feel very special and it’s like falling in love with somebody for the first time, every single minute.

Alone with her away from her brothers, I am discovering the personality behind the nightmare she can be. She is obviously becoming brilliant, and she is extremely creative and funny. With almost psychic ability she repeatedly kicks my ass at various card games - even when I try to win. I watch her sit at the computer and teach herself how to read at www.starfall.com and marvel as she speaks with a vocabulary that’s well beyond five years. I have no idea how or where she is learning and absorbing so much from, but it seems far from normal – or perhaps girls really are much smarter.

She wakes from a restless sleep and asks me to sleep next to her. To those who believe, God has promised an eternity in Heaven with Him, but until then, he’s loaned me Karina, so I have to go now.