Nothing To Do

My mother has Alzheimer’s Syndrome. Every once in a while she is able to form a thought and string a few words together. What she has said a couple of times in the last few months is “What can I do?” It breaks my heart when she asks that for she can do virtually nothing except sit, eat when fed, and walk when assisted. She cannot read or even focus on television. The other elderly women in the assisted care home where she lives are in the same situation. They can do nothing but sit—hour after hour, day after day. Mom’s past, in this life, is mentally irretrievable; her present, incomprehensible; her future, in God’s hands, but based, in large part, on what she did while it was in her own hands.

What can I do for her? I can sit with her. I can walk with her holding her hand. I can help feed her and be with her as often as I can. I can read to her and make small talk, and though she does not comprehend the words, she does comprehend the tone, the kindness. She does not know me other than a nice man who comes to visit her, and she, and the other women are glad to have a visit.

What if we, you and I, come to that—to the mental state of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease? I hope we will have stored up memories of a lifetime of good works, accomplished or attempted. And though we sometimes think we are not accomplishing much, if we but keep attempting to work, to learn, to serve, that may be even more important than measurable accomplishment.

But many are not doing that—not even making the attempt. Many who do not suffer dementia claim, because of unemployment or misfortune they have ‘nothing to do.’ Recent reports in the news show that Americans are working less, sleeping more, reading less, watching more television, getting fatter, and finding less satisfaction in life. It is easy to see how all these things are related. It is by following the path of least resistance.

What is the antidote? Just take the road less travelled (or the one formerly more travelled): work more (even for no money), serve more, read more, move more, eat less, sleep less, watch less television. There is always something worthwhile to do as long as we have faculties. Schedule some discipline into your life. If it isn’t scheduled it won’t get done.

Be grateful we’ve, as yet, got something to do.