(01:37):
Good morning, my friends and happy Saturday in the age of Corona virus. So it’s been a little while since I’ve spoken for the simple reason that not much has been different. Things are starting to change a bit and unfortunately it’s not for the better. So when you cannot change a situation, it is up to us to change ourselves. And I know somebody famous said that not me. It might’ve been Gandhi, but let’s see if we can, let’s see if I could figure it out. Cause we should credit that person. If you cannot change the situation, change your attitude. Let’s see who it was.
(02:33):
Let’s see who it is. If you can’t change a situation, you can change your attitude towards it. If you don’t like something, change it, change your life by changing your attitude. If you don’t like something, change it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All right. So here’s the deal, you know, I’m always honest with you, you know, I always tell you what I really think. And I think that this is kind of a transition period for us, or it should be where it is for me. And let me tell you what I’m going to do about it so that hopefully you know, this will provide some help to you or some perspective to you. I’m going to tell you one of my, I’m gonna tell you one of my favorites, Maya Angelou, if you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
(03:33):
Don’t complain. Yes. so here’s the thing. So I’ve been waiting like the rest of you for things to settle down and see what goes on and hopefully wait for this tide to recede wait for this virus to, you know, kind of go away not in a Trumpian go away, but you know, I thought that as a society, we would have made a little bit more progress by now than we have. Just because other other countries and other areas have done it. So it’s possible. And certainly if it’s not possible to 100% eradicate the virus you know, it is possible to minimize, to mitigate, to do whatever we can to help keep things to keep things, you know, as under control as humanly possible. And as you know, I say all the time, there are actually very few things that are in our control, but there are things that are still in our control.
(04:41):
And we talk about them in our support group on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. But as my grandmother used to say, man plans, God laughs okay. In this case, I think in this case man’s not planning and God is crying. But that being said, this is our group and I’m speaking to you. Okay. And I speak every day to people all over and in all groups. And I’m hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping. At least I was hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping that people would listen to what I say. And it’s not about me, but at least that people would recognize that I know something about this. And if you don’t believe me, believe Anthony Fowchee and even Deborah Berks or any other medical or scientific person who understands how things you know occur. I was hoping that people would learn would be open to learning would be educated, would be willing to be educated.
(05:57):
Would reason would listen to proof would listen to science would listen to, you know, experts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We don’t see it. So I can’t control everybody. I can’t actually control anybody and I have a hard enough time trying to control myself. But the idea is I am currently speaking to the people who want to be heard or who want to hear or who want to be spoken to. And I recognize that I’m preaching to the choir. However, we have to stay strong. Okay. We have to stay strong for the people that are waiting for the day that everything is back to normal. And the movie theaters, Broadway shows, nightclubs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, reopen. And we’re back to pod mom, my friend. How are you always love to hear from Nepal? You know, that, that, that it’s going to go back and now we can party and now we can do this and now we can do that.
(07:08):
My advice to you is stop waiting for it. Okay. And I don’t say that to crush your hope. I say that to be realistic. And I say that to help you move forward. You know, when I first worked at Rusk, I heard a story about one of the iconic rehab doctors that was there when Rusk Institute first opened. And he was a spinal cord specialist. And on the first day that he would see a patient, of course the patient would have the same question every time doctor, will I ever walk again? Right. Doc, will I ever walk again? And people ask me things all the time. Like, do you think that you know, it’ll probably be okay if I go to my son’s birthday party. Right. or they’ll say, Oh, you know what? It’ll probably be okay if I don’t know, probably I dunno.
(08:06):
I’m not saying it probably won’t, but I’m just saying, you know, people are asking questions about things that they want a certain answer to. So patient with a spinal cord injury, fractured spine, maybe spinal cord damage would say to the doctor, Hey, am I ever going to walk again? And this doctor would say to them, no, you are never going to walk again. You’re never going to walk again. Right. And the reasoning behind this was because, and they did research to prove this, okay, hello mom. They did research to prove this, but what they found was that if people, for the people that you say, well, you know what, we don’t know. You might walk again. Okay. Those people did much worse than the people who were told on the first day. No, you’re never gonna walk again. So for the people that were told, no, you’re never gonna walk again.
(09:01):
They crashed right off the bat. Okay. Cause that was devastating news. It was devastating news to hear that you’re never gonna walk again, but, but eventually after they crashed, what would happen is they’d say, Hey, I’m never going to walk again. So I had better get used to this. I better get used to being in this wheelchair. I better get used to being able to get myself from the bed to the wheelchair, being able to wash myself being able to get myself dressed, being able to drive but to adapt to my new situation for the people that were told. Well, you know, we don’t know, you might walk again. They didn’t adapt as well. And although they avoided that kind of first day, first week, first month immediate crash, what happened to them was they never really committed to the rehab and they never really committed to the adaptation.
(09:59):
Okay. And again, you know, we didn’t know what this was going to be like, SARS was here, it came and went, Merce was here, it came and went. I don’t think this one’s coming and going. Okay. And the reason why I say that is because number one it’s insidious, it’s aggressive, it’s smart. It’s opportunistic. And because we don’t have leadership we don’t have a national and international coalition and I’m speaking of the United States. Okay. I know that everyone else is working together except for us sadly, which is a huge mistake, but we don’t have a leadership. We don’t have leadership and we don’t have a top down approach in which guidelines are set from, you know, set from the top and work their way down. Okay. And that’s not a political statement. I can make plenty of political statements, but that’s not my goal.
(11:05):
And if you’re a Trump supporter and you don’t like what I’m saying, I mean, you know, listen, you got to look at the fact, okay, you gotta look at the facts. This is not about one human being. This is about the world at this point. So the idea is we need to adapt. And in my opinion, I’m not going to say my opinion. I’m not going to say what I think you should do. But what I am doing is I am preparing to be in for a long time. I am making my space more usable. I am creating office space so that I plan to work from home to have a home office, to be a contained. And self-sufficient for as long as I need to be. And if that’s a year, so be it. And if that’s two, so be it. And if it’s three years, so be it.
(11:57):
And if it’s five years, so be it. Okay. I know that sounds crazy. But think about it. Okay. I want to live. I want to live, I don’t want Corona virus at all costs. I don’t want it. Okay. I don’t care if I get a mild case, I don’t want it. I want to live. I want to be alive and I’m not in a concentration camp. Okay. Okay. And I’m not in jail and I’m not living on the streets. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and if you’re tuned in, then neither are you. Okay. So when I hear people complain that they have to stay in, or that they can’t go get their hair cut, or that they can’t go to the movies or that they can’t go out to dinner or they can’t go to the club or they can’t see their friends.
(12:58):
I don’t have sympathy for them. I really don’t. And I’m sorry to say that. Okay. Because it’s not that I don’t care. It’s not that I don’t care about people. Okay. I do care about people. I’m a humanitarian. Okay. And I think I’m, I’m clear about that, but I don’t care how your hair looks. If it’s going to put me at risk, I don’t care how your hair looks. If it’s gonna put my parents at risk, if it’s going to put my sisters at risk, if it’s going to put my family at risk, if it’s going to put my friends at risk, if it’s going to put my patients at risk. And I think it’s completely irresponsible for people to do this, but again, they’re not getting, they’re not getting the right guidance. So I try to come here and give you the right guidance.
(13:44):
Okay. And the idea is that I want to be alive. I assume you do too. And our team, our group, our community has excelled. Okay. Has excelled. And I’m thankful to say that to this day, six months. Yeah. I have not heard of the loss of one single person in our group to Corona virus. COVID-19 okay. So that is a blessing right there. And I want to keep the ball rolling. And as I said, I can’t control everybody. I can’t control that. And again, I often have difficulty controlling myself. Okay. But the idea is I want to be able to handle the things I can handle. I want to help the people who want to be helped. And for those people that are just saying, you know what, I don’t care or simply saying, well, fuck it. You gotta die of something.
(14:46):
Or you know what Yolo, you only live once or have FOMO fear of missing out. Then I’m sorry, they’re on their own. I told them not to go swimming. Okay. And the first rule of any rescue is you make sure that when trying to help a victim, you make sure there’s not two victims. One of them being you. And so I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, not that this is good news. Okay. But it’s resolution in a way, okay. It’s resolution and what you can do. And what I advise you to do is say, you know what? I got it pretty good here. Okay. I got it. Pretty good. And when I hear people say, well, you know what? Our kids are going to be permanently damaged by staying in. That’s not, what’s permanently damaging them. Okay? But if you are home, you have all the foods you need.
(15:47):
You have electricity, you have heat in the winter time, you have air conditioning in the summertime. You have a roof over your head. You have people care about you. And even if they’re not in the same room as you, if you can communicate with them, you have the internet, you have every channel known to man, you have food. The people delivering, you can cook, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Count your blessings. My friends, because you’ve got it good. And there are plenty of people that don’t have those things. Okay. And when you look at other countries, countries like Brazil, other countries that are getting their asses whooped, not like we’re getting our asses whooped because we’re stupid.
(16:39):
Sorry. We’re getting as our asses whooped because we make mistake over miss and mistake after mistake, after mistake, after mistake, after mistake, after mistake. Okay. That’s why our country is getting its ass. Well, because people don’t believe science. Okay. But when you go to the favelas in Brazil and you see a family of four living in a aluminum hut with no running water, right on top of another hut, right on top of another hut and another hut and another hut and another hut and another hut and another HUD and another hut and another, well, then those people don’t have a choice. We do. I choose to stay safe. I hope that my family chooses to stay safe. I hope that you choose to stay safe. I hope that anybody that wants to be alive and well chooses to stay safe. And I hope for the people that don’t care you know, it’s like in, in Fiddler, on the roof, there’s a blessing.
(17:45):
They say, there’s a rabbi speaking. And he says, rabbi, do you have a blessing for the czar? And he says, do I have a blessing for the czar? Yes. He says, may God bless and keep the czar far away from us. Okay. And so for the people that don’t give a shit about themselves, or only care about themselves for the people that don’t care, if they infect other people for people that don’t care that they set back the entire process, right. It’s like you say, okay, if someone farts in an elevator, we all smell it. Right. So there you go, okay, there you go. It’s the same type of thing. So it’s not just like, you’re making the choice for yourself. If you don’t wear your seatbelt. For the most part, you’re making a choice for yourself. If you don’t want a bicycle helmet, you’re making a choice for yourself.
(18:46):
Okay. In this case, your choice affects everybody. Okay. And for the people like us that have been in that, haven’t been doing anything, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, because we are listening to reason because we want to stay alive. Because even if it’s not about us, we actually care about other people. Okay. So be it. But for those of you that don’t okay for those of you that only care about yourself. And I know it’s not this group, because if, if you only cared about yourself, you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t be listening to this. Okay. But I’m just giving you my perspective. Okay? The idea is that if you don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself, and if you don’t give a damn that what you’re doing could make you sick and we take it a step further and you don’t care that it could make your family sick, or you don’t care that it could make even a perfect stranger sick or their family say, well, you know what I say, may God bless you and keep you way the fuck away from me.
(20:01):
Okay. And I say that only because I have no negative connotations of the word, fuck, but may God bless you and keep you far away from me because I don’t want it. I don’t want anyone in my family to get it. I don’t want you to get it. And I really don’t want anyone to get it. But you know what? There’s some people that are absolutely dead set on getting it. Okay. There’s people that are absolutely dead set on getting it. And there are people in power that are absolutely dead set on hurting as many people as possible for their own benefit. Okay. So that’s it happy Saturday? My friends happy Saturday, really happy Saturday because you know what? Not every day is beautiful, but there is beauty in every day. Not every day is good, but there is goodness in every day and not every day is perfect, but you can find perfection if you look for it, okay. If you look for the crap, you will find it. If you look for the good, you will find it. So whatever you’re doing right now, start looking for the good look around, look at how you know, there’s a, a line in there. One of my favorite players of all time is it might even be my favorite player is Falsettos right? Yeah.
(21:26):
And they said,
(21:29):
You know what? Look around you. Somebody brought you, your, your, your coffee. Someone’s bringing you your lunch. Somebody’s ironing your socks. Look at all the things that we have. Look at all the things that you have, be thankful for them. Be thankful that you have the ability to be safe. Thank God that you have the ability to take care of yourself. And thank God that you have the ability to make good decisions. And you know, what, if people want to jump over a cliff into a volcano, then we can’t control that there are things we can control. There are things we can not control. And if you know the serenity prayer, which I don’t necessarily know, but I’m going to try it. God gives me the serenity to change the things I can to accept the things I can’t. And to know the difference between the two. All right. Have a great weekend. My friend, you can still have a great weekend, even in the age of Corona virus. Yes, you can. Yes. We can have a great day. Have a great weekend support group today at 2:00 PM. Have a good one.