Of Shameless and Alzheimer's

     When I get to discover what I feel is a good movie, or in this case, a Netflix series, I cannot stop watching until I have finished the whole thing.  My latest is a series called Shameless. I am now on its eleventh episode of the eighth season. Three more to go.  Anyway, it is about a dysfunctional family at the south side of Chicago, said to be known for its disreputable location where poverty stricken families, homeless, addicts, and drug pushers thrive. The Gallagher family, due to a neglectful father, is supposedly headed by the eldest daughter, Fiona, played by Emmy Rossum, who had to single handedly raise her siblings since she was herself a toddler because the father, Frank, (William H. Macey), is a no good addict, alcoholic who is always wasted. The mother, Monica, was herself an addict and a bipolar who came and went always abandoning her family. The children, naturally, had to live using cunning ways to get by.  They grew up to be thieves and con artists just to survive and a dog eats dog world.

                The family had a trusted husband and wife neighbors who owned a bar named Kev, an almost naïve but honest man who loves his wife, V, an African American. They are joined in by a Russian hooker who forced her way to their lives until she ended up owning the bar because of her intelligence.  The series has introduced interesting characters all throughout the entire show and I am really enticed to watch it in between work. 

                Anyway, the father, Frank, is just no ignorant fool.  In spite of his addiction and alcoholism, there lies a man who has developed his own philosophy in life.  In one of the episodes, he blurted out his thoughts on Alzheimer’s which I have been thinking about since I have seen my mother being afflicted with the disease.  Frank said, “Alzheimer is an evolutionary advantage that we’ve developed so we won’t have to be aware of the depth of misery we face in our dotage!”

                I have always thought along those lines.  Alzheimer’s to me is a coping mechanism.  It is something that numbs away our pain having to see how we deteriorate and not be a part of a society who does not give a damn on destitute and old folks while they are trying to survive in a world that only cares for those who can live independently and better yet, comfortably.