Dear Touchett
In answer to one of your questions, my wife's maternal grandmother and great uncle both had diabetes and both lived into their nineties without any of the usual diabetic complications.
They had to start on insulin when they were in their eighties, being on oral medication prior to that, and they were both a bit senile in the end ( more forgetful than gaga). I do not know if that was because of the diabetes.
I do not know how well controlled they were as diabetics. I remember the grandmother well however, she was a short overweight lady ( think of a malteeser on legs
) with a bit of a desperately sweet tooth. We always had to tell her off for helping herself to too much desert.
Does this tell us much about what our own fate will be as diabetics? I do not think so. They were different people who leaved at a different time. On one hand we probably enjoy better healthcare, on the other hand they probably enjoyed more stress free lifestyles.
At the end of the day some things are not for us mere men to know.
As you appear quite literary let me share one of my favorite poems by Greek poet Constantinos Kavafis with you:
"As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean."
Our mortal nature dictates that we all have the same ultimate destination but what is important is not the destination as such but the journey.
Do not let worrying about the inevitability of ultimately losing the war stop you from taking glory from whatever small victories come your way along the way.
Regards
Pavlos
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If I have an "agenda" that is it.
I am still somewhat "obsessed" with taking my BG readings, although I'm in my third month after diagnosis, and I know that many other members here are doing the same.
