Waxing Philosophical - a Lesson on the Ancient Deity "Dis"/¡Qué filosófico!

(Post #5)—  
Lo siento que no tengo tiempo hoy para traducir a espanol hoy.  
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And now to wax spiritual about our latest (political) event--

There we were, happy to finally, finally be moving forward toward the day that I can return to teaching because David will finally, finally, FINALLY have a roommate, so as to begin his Supported Living Services program. (On My Own).

We had even received a letter confirming which apartment would be ours.
Then, it happened.
Disappointment in an email. Through a complication resulting from housing regulations, our apartment was lost. So, here we remain, living in boxed-up Limbo. How disappointing.

Disappointment is impossible to avoid at times, isn't it? Yet Christians like me, and other followers of God, are supposed to turn our disappointments into opportunities to "bend one's will to that of The Lord".

Well, today, it's got me beat. I just can't get over it...

And now to show why it is that we really, really MUST find a way to get me back into my English-teaching classroom:
Let's cheer me up with a vocabulary lesson! Root words-- my favorite!
Ever wonder how spirituality relates to the root words in "disappointment"?

Well, here goes. Let's begin with the word "Dis":

• "Dis" is the ancient Roman name for that creature whom the Greeks called "Hades", the king of hell- the God of Negativity and Pessimism. In The Aeneid, Virgil wrote:

"The door of Dis stands open night and day...".
Thanks, Virgil! This helps me forgive myself for having inadvertently wandered through Disappointment's Door, losing my normal optimistic composure. And, Virgil's poem helps me see how that ancient deity lives on in modern English. Today, the word  dis is synonymous with not. 

Some examples are:

• like/ dislike

• encourage/ discourage

• ease/ disease

So, when we discourage people instead of encouraging them; when we dislike them instead of trying to see something likeable; when we allow disappointment to distract us from counting our blessings, we are, in a sense, accidentally worshiping the God of Negativity.

Next, let's look at the other part of the word disappoint which is, of course, appoint.
No, not in the appointed office, governmental appointment sort of meaning, although English speakers have used it that way for hundreds of years.

In the word "disappoint", we mean appoint in the sense of setting an appointment- in  David's and my case an appointment for 5:00 pm, July 16th, 2018 to sign a lease. Not simply for a new apartment, but for a new lease on life!

(To understand why it's more than just an apartment, please read my post of July 27 entitled"Will you need to cash out your retirement to help your adult son or daughter?").

Today's disappointment stings, but I also know that, as Teresa of Avila wrote, "All things pass".

Across a vista of nearly six decades, I look back on the journey of my life, at previous disappointments that worked themselves out in the long run, and I witness that the power of "Dis" was just an illusion. The God who is healing this world and all in it, the God of love- of tikkun olam- allows the breaking of appointments and other suffering for a good reason. Somehow, there's a better apartment than the one for which we got all packed up. Or, perhaps not. Perhaps the good God has other plans I can't see now because I'm merely human:

• Does the Holy Spirit want me to quit feeling sorry for myself as the reason for this housing delay is that I have too much money in retirement set aside for David's Special Needs Trust? How many parents my age were unable to save anything at all for their disabled offspring?
• Or, is God using this "tribulation" to improve my plot for the book I'm writing? (one needs conflict to write a good story);

• Is God providing David and me an opportunity to pay our dues and earn our stripes, as we struggle alongside others fighting this final American Revolution? (... the Disability Revolution!!)
• This event is helping me to feel greater compassion for the too-many families running from nearby wildfires. After all, our stuff is in boxes; their stuff is burned.

Yes, today's situation is a sticky wicket, but not as sticky as are the wickets of most other human beings.

"Patience achieves everything." - Teresa of Avila

(Post #5)

¿Tendrá que retirar su retiro para ayudar a su hijo o hija adulto?/ Will You Need to Cash Out Your Retirement to Help Your Adult Son or Daughter?

Post #6

Lo siento que no tengo tiempo hoy para traducir a espanol hoy.  
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If you can understand the issues in the following post, then you pass the test of knowledge regarding post-college housing acrobatics.

If not, I recommend getting started on learning about these issues ASAP:

One of the compliance officers of the affordable housing agency where my autistic son and I now share an apartment was trying to find us a newer apartment with central heat and air***** that can financially accommodate David's and my "outside the box" financial household. (Bear in mind, we may seem "outside the box" because we are pioneers. However, you, dear Reader, should pay attention, because my I am only the first drop in a tidal wave of people like you with autistic sons and daughters):

•     * Just because an autistic adult has college degrees is no guarantee of a job after college. Like many, many, MANY autistic adults, currently, David has only $910.72 in SSI monthly benefit to pay toward rent (very low income) and no assets.

•     * In contrast, my income is approximately $1940/mo, and my assets create problems for housing qualification.  Here's that problem:                                                                                                                                                                 I took time off from teaching to help my autistic son earn college degrees, and have been living with him until he gets set up in his all-important SLS program. Rather than cashing out my PERS, STRS, and the small inheritance I received from my mother, I placed it into the "Mary Nisson Living Trust", which will convert to David's Special Needs Trust upon my death. A Special Needs Trust allows an SSI recipient to inherit funding without ruining his or her SSI or Medi-Cal. However, under current housing laws, Special Needs Trusts do not help housing. 

After much calculating and researching, the compliance officer notified David and me that were were approved for an apartment with central heat and air. (See below for reason central heat/air is crucial). *****.

Then, after double-checking the compliance officer's work, her boss, the Compliance Manager noticed an error. She explained to David and me that the compliance officer had accidentally thought the apartment she was considering for David and me is a "TCAC" program apartment, for which our finances would have qualified despite my high asset amount.

However, the Manager discovered that the apartment we had been offered is actually a RHCP apartment. So, David and I could not sign that lease, after all.

Why had no one in the IDD world, or the Land of Affordable Housing directed me to "TCAC" earlier? David and I would have been applying for those other housing situations had we known that they were the type of housing for which our "goofy" finances qualify. They were not on the Yolo County Housing Authority lists, nor on other agency's lists, but I now have them. Here's that link:

TCACmap

(Scroll down to the "list of projects" link to see all projects).

The wait list on their current projects is years, but David's completing those app's anyway. As always, please continue to search for someone to replace me as David's roommate. (Davis, California).

Thanks,
~ Mary

***** Please remember that the purpose of moving to an apartment with central heat and air, rather than having someone replace me as David's roommate in our current "home",  is not that David and/or I dislike our wall heater.                                                                                                                                                                  The reason is that David will be living with non-family, and there's no privacy here because the heating here is provided by a hallway unit, so the residents must sleep with doors open throughout winter.
For the sake of starting up the SLS, David would be fine sleeping with his door open, as long as his roommate has no criminal background and is psychologically under control.

How about you, or your autistic son?  (Best not to have a woman living here, as there's no nighttime privacy).

Want to be David's roommate?


End Post #6

National Disability Voter Registration Week!!

July 16-20, 2018--

It's National Disability Voter Registration Week!

Visit the AAPD website for more information:

American Association for People with Disabilities