Category: Asylum PM

THE THANG: Mosey south to the mulch trail and then to the cul-de-sac that is south of the Coliseum. We will stop to do 10 Burpees, and 20 Freddie Mercuries.
Mosey downhill to the tree that is across the street from the Outdoor Chapel. We will do 20 American Hammers.
Mosey to the Exercise Machines. We will stop to do two 25 rep sets on machines of choice.
Mosey to the Bros Bowl. We will go around the three rings of power, stopping to do 25 Bench Dips at the benches on top and 25 Merkins on the bottom each time.
Mosey to the Caribbean Parking Lot. We will run a Candy Canes around the parking lot until we get to cone placed on other side of parking lot. We will stop at every other island to do 20 Carolina Dry Docks. The man who finishes exercises at the cone first sweeps all men back to the start.
Mosey to the parking lot across the roadway and go to the shaded area just right of the nice restrooms. From there we will run across the field to Haslam’s Rock. We will take a 20 second gander at the beautiful valley and water below.
Mosey to AO.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Iron Pax Upcoming. Also, look in Slack for where to meet for Bluegrass PM tomorrow as there will be an evening school gathering of parents and students that evening.

COT:
Prayers
Prayer of praise for Pusher’s daughter who as a Freshman at UT will be able to march out onto the field with the famous T at the first football game.
Message
I had a patient in my psychology practice who had been my patient for about 15 years. I will disguise names due to reasons of confidentiality but let’s call her Marlene. She suffered from a long history of Major Depressive Disorder. Marlene died of natural causes on August 2, 2024.
Marlene’s story was a sad one, because of her depression and difficult history with her mother and some of her siblings. But like so many people who suffer with mental illness, her story was a beautiful one as well and one that I can learn from.
Marlene had a difficult childhood history. She suffered abuse and that abuse contributed to her depression. She loved her mother but her mother could be discounting and hateful. That relationship contributed to a great bit of hurt for Darlene and impacted her relationships with others in the future. Darlene could be very dedicated to others but could also get hurt easily and just write people off, saying to hell with them and never wanting to speak to them again.
One person that I am thankful Marlene never wrote off was her 2nd husband. Let’s call him Larry. When I first met Marlene, she had only been married to Larry for a short period of time. She talked about how good a man he was and how much he loved her and did for her – yet, she felt he wasn’t as attractive as men that she had previously had relationships with and wondered about her marriage.
Larry’s goodness and love for Marlene never wavered. Marlene learned that love has much more to do than with how physically attractive one is. Over the years, Marlene’s love for Larry continually grew. During her most depressing times, when she felt the most distrusting of and hurt by others, she knew Larry loved her and she was very thankful for him. Marlene’s love for Larry grew as his diabetes got worse, leading to very poor eyesight for him that approached blindness. Her love for him grew when he lost his job because of the blindness. Because of his blindness, Larry had to be led about when outside of the house. Inside the house, however, he was alright because he knew the house so well. He could even cook up a mean dinner as long as the food items were in the right place.
Marlene was close to her own daughter and two grandchildren. She and Larry used to go to the grandchildren’s ball games. Of course, Larry was not able to see everything that happened because of his eyesight but could hear the reports about what was happening. Marlene’s ability to go to the games, however, diminished as she began to suffer from heart issues and orthopedic issues, particularly in her back and legs. It began to hurt her to walk, even for short distances, but she would often go to the games despite the pain.
Marlene began to smoke some marijuana, finding it helped her with the pain. The use of drugs was something she had taught her daughter to always stay away from. When her adult daughter found out this year that her own mother was smoking marijuana, she got so upset that she refused to talk to Marlene. This, of course, hurt Marlene greatly. She apologized to her daughter and stopped using marijuana but her daughter held her silence. She did let Marlene talk to the grandkids. Marlene and I talked about how her daughter would eventually break her silence.
Like I said, Marlene had cardiologic or heart issues in addition to her back and leg pain. In mid-July Marlene developed an infection in her heart. That led to sepsis. She was hospitalized and treated with antibiotics and other medical drugs. Her daughter, who had been so upset with her mother, rushed to the hospital immediately and stayed with her every day and night during her treatment. Marlene did get out of the hospital for about five days but problems reoccurred and she was rushed back to the hospital. Unfortunately, she died the next day. It was her daughter who called to let me know of her passing. Marlene had told her daughter that if anything ever happened to her, to be sure to let Dr. Neece know.
What have I learned from Marlene? Here are a few of the things:
That there is beauty in the stories of all people.

That marital love means so much more than physical attraction and that physical attraction grows as we develop a more meaningful love with our spouses.

That there is a powerful capacity to love within even those who distrust others or turn their backs on others.

That we should never give up on people we love who get angry with us and turn their backs on us.

That people like Marlene, who may not be great leaders, or wealthy, or vocationally successful, or even mentally or physically healthy, can touch us profoundly, thereby impacting our lives and maybe making us better people.

Marlene, I know you are up there with God and, if you are listening, I love you!