Saying goodbye to mother

Mother died last Friday from bone cancer at the age of 86. She had been diagnosed only 10 days previously with stage IV cancer, so treatment was out of the question. Our extended family came together to keep vigil. It was a good, if not enjoyable experience.

Mother lead a full life, and had many ardent admirers. She was active until the last three weeks of life, and had all her faculties until the last three days. So there is little to regret in her life, and I feel strangely calm about this whole process. Perhaps true grief will strike later unexpectedly, but I think not.

At such times, it is natural to take stock of one's life, and I intend to do that here now, perhaps for an extended time. I intend, for the first time, to lay out what I believe to be true, based on overwhelming evidence. It is a daunting prospect: I know from experience and training that writing about complex subjects is no easy task. But now, at this time of my life, it is calling to me.

The thousands of posts about Leo on the leo-editor site (and previously on SourceForge) will serve as a template or model for the writing here. That is, the writing will be calm, with the intention of playing with ideas. The emphasis will be on problem solving.

This writing may upset some. That is not my intention, but it may happen. With that in mind, I will insist on the following ground rules. All responses to this blog must be civil, respectful, and calm. Those who write abusive posts will be immediately banned. Name calling, ad hominem remarks and ranting will not be tolerated. Violators will be immediately banned without further comment.

It is a symptom of the present state of society that these rules need to be stated prominently. Considerable personal experience shows that they are necessary.