Let It Go

***SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE FROZEN BELOW***

It has been  almost a week since John Travolta has pronounced Idina Menzel's name incorrectly. People everywhere are making fun of him.  I do feel sorry for him, because a lot of people have mispronounced my name and I simply corrected them a few times. The big difference between Idina Menzel and me is that she is a well known artist. So how could anyone not know her name. I did not know about her until I saw her as a guest on a couple of shows. Later on when I saw the movie Frozen, I realized how good she sings. 

When we were young and our moms told us bedtime stories they always told us the moral of the story in the end. When we see Disney movies we know that they are meant for kids. What we seldom realize is the fact that there are hidden metaphors in those movies. The Oscar Winning animated movie is amazing to watch. We take technology for granted, but if someone understands the difficulties of the work that goes behind animation they will be amazed too. Besides having beautiful animated scenes, the movie has a very good motto. It is teaching us adults that if you have a child with a problem, do not hide it. Try and see if there is an answer to that problem. A treatment if you will. In the movie the younger sister, Anna suffers separation from her older sister Elsa because their parents want to keep Elsa's secret from everyone including her younger sister. In the end of the movie Princess Elsa the girl with the problem is telling herself to let it go, meaning let the secret come out in the open. The best part of the movie is that the treatment for the problem of the older sister is only unconditional love and that she finds in the heart of the younger sister. 

What I learned from the singer Idina Menzel is to keep trying your best. If she can sing in spite of broken ribs I can keep doing my daily chores in spite of breathing problems. "Let it go" to me means do not dwell.

Chronic Illness and the Workplace

When someone gets a big cut and has to go to the emergency room or even urgent care, they get sympathy and they also get a note for work. Also when someone falls and breaks a leg and has to use crutches, people can see that they are hurting.  It just seems like people need to visually see when someone is in pain to understand and give the hurting person a break. Those of us who are suffering from debilitating long term illnesses do not seem to get a break.  What do we do? I asked one of my co-workers and she said that maybe we can either suffer or let the illness get so bad that it gets visual attention. I knew that she was kidding so we both laughed. 

 Living with diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma is hard enough, but if you are working full time it gets even harder. Harder than putting up with the daily routine which is different from a healthy person is the fact that so many of us have these conditions that people think they are easily treated. While keeping diabetes (type 2) under control is somewhat in our hands and high blood pressure is not very hard to keep under control, asthma is a totally different condition. It can be triggered by a number of factors and one of them is our nerves. So, some of us who understand this fact are able to breath all right in spite of being chronic asthmatics, but some of us who have emotional hardships like anxiety and also depression need the help of people with strong nerves. I urge people at work place to help asthmatics in any way possible. They are working in spite of suffering because they want to be responsible citizens and pull their own weight.

 Last week, we heard in the news that some NY State employees were taking uph compensation and disability benefits by using false documentation. Of course they were arrested.