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I was a good-looking kid at 19, but...

5/21/2016

Comments

 
Picture
Looking back at my young self in this photo, which was taken by my sister at UBC where she was studying English, I'm very happy to be the old, receding person I am now as a senior. In that handsome young visage, I see only the beginnings of an understanding of the world and very little understanding of myself. Yet I badly wanted to know then what I know now. Some people of my advanced age would, I'm sure, give anything to be their young selves again, but not me. I'm happy that after 45 years I've finally arrived at the place I desperately wanted to be back then, and so have no interest in returning to that dark hole of ignorance, especially that total lack of knowledge of myself, and the rough life that resulted from it.
​

Likes: 25You, Oliver Gatfield, Atalla Kifarkis and 22 others
Comments
​To read all the comments, press "Read More"....................................................


Magnus Grendel Samson Coleman IT TAKES A LONG TIME, TO GET WHERE WE ARE... SOMETIMES.
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 20:12 · Edited

Stan Burfield Yeah. Sure took me a long time. A lot longer than I thought it would. But now I can see it couldn't have happened any faster. Even if people had told me things. I had to see everything from the inside out. And that took a sequence of events. Growing on the inside.
Like · Reply · 3 · 18 May at 20:19

Danny Wootton Stan you never showed me this picture, all the years I've know you!!! Cool
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 20:23


Stan Burfield It was a little embarrassing to show around. I remember going into my sister's dorm with her and the girls looking at me in the hall. She said one of them asked her, "Who is that cute boy!" I had no idea before that that I was a good-looking kid. I think my sister didn't either, so she took this of me after that.
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 20:35 · Edited

Donna Allard you sure were
Like · Reply · 18 May at 20:52

Linda Eva Williams James Dean pout!
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 21:06

Stan Burfield and at least as shy and down on myself. ha ha
Like · Reply · 18 May at 21:07

Linda Eva Williams Don't buy a Spyder.
Like · Reply · 18 May at 21:13

Stan Burfield Linda Eva Williams the ski jacket?
Like · Reply · 18 May at 21:15

Stan Burfield Linda Eva Williams 3-wheeled bike?
Like · Reply · 18 May at 21:18

Linda Eva Williams The Porsche he crashed in.
Like · Reply · 18 May at 23:04

Stan Burfield Ah. Okay. Well, luckily I'm not into fancy cars.
Like · Reply · 18 May at 23:16

Meredith Moeckel Stan dear friend, you really should be grateful that you have this awesome pic of yourself. You are definitely blessed with beauty on the inside & out! I can most definitely relate to your reflection looking backwards though. I wouldn't want to be 19 again, but I'll take 35 or so! Just kidding! Great picture of you! smile emoticon
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 18 May at 21:51

Sherry McCormack · Friends with Karen Booth
My dad always said,'If I knew then what I know now...' Likely he was quoting someone else, but it took years to really understand what he meant. I'd love to have my 24yo body with my 52yo experience!


Stan Burfield I probably would too if I were physically in bad shape, but I'm okay, so I'm happy being just the way I am. Now that I know who I am. smile emoticon
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 22:16 · Edited

Sherry McCormack · Friends with Karen Booth
Then you a truly a lucky person!

Stan Burfield However, if I had been born just 15 or 20 years earlier, they wouldn't have discovered or told me that glucosamine would totally reverse my otherwise-serious arthritis. So then I would have wished for my youth again, for sure. I would have been in a wheelchair a long time ago.
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 22:15

Sherry McCormack · Friends with Karen Booth
I'm glad glucosamine works for you. It's more the energy I had then (and wasted) that I wish for now. I have all these ideas for things I'd like to do, but not the energy to start them! Ah, well.

Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 22:20

Stan Burfield I have a lot of ideas too, but not the time now, having out of nowhere become a social organizer!
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 22:24

Sherry McCormack · Friends with Karen Booth
Lol! Life often leads you to places unexpected!

Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 22:25

Stan Burfield That's for sure. You never know!
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 22:25

Karen Booth OMG, Stan and Sherry -- didn't realize the two of you knew each other. Small world!
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 May at 11:05 · Edited

Stan Burfield Karen Booth Everything starts somewhere!
Like · Reply · 19 May at 14:36

Sherry McCormack · Friends with Karen Booth
Karen Booth Actually, we don't, but Stan's statement struck a chord in me and I remembered what my dad said so I though I would share....

Like · Reply · Yesterday at 04:13

Karen Booth You can understand why I jumped to that conclusion -- you both being central Albertans ...
Unlike · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 11:03

Linda Eva Williams Looking at this photo again, you do look very pensive, as if looking apprehensively into the future.
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 23:05

Stan Burfield Yeah. That's what I see too.
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 May at 23:26

n Nyman something's beginning here...
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 19 May at 06:23

Lynn Tait You look like that Banderas actor - the Spanish guy.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 19 May at 10:39

Meredith Moeckel You mean Antonio Banderas ? I was just looking at this pic again, I presume because your comment renewed it in my news feed. Anyway, I don't think that Stan looks like him. And I also have another question for you Stan. I'm wondering if you took glucosamine for your knee joints ?? And if so how long did you take it. Thanks! ☆♡☆
Like · Reply · 19 May at 11:11

Stan Burfield All my joints started seizing up, starting with my fingers, about the year 2000. Not seizing exactly, but at first stiffening and then grinding. My doctor said I had osteoarthritis, and that it would just get worse and there was no cure. She said the only thing I could take for it was a pain killer. I was in shock. And I was desperate. I thought my life was over. Already I could only go up stairs slowly pulling both feet up onto each step. A wheelchair wasn't far in the future. So I pleaded with her like a little kid. I said, "There MUST be something I can take for it. Surely!" There was a long pause like the doctor was doing something very unethical telling me this, like she was only doing it to calm me down. She said, "Well..... you could try glucosamine....Some people say it helps. You can get it in health food stores" Within just a few days of starting on it, I could tell the stiffness in my fingers was receding, and within three weeks all my joints were working like a kids. The next time at the flower auction, which has long stairs up the buyers' gallery, I ran up them, flying like a teenage. It was exhilarating. I felt young again! And to this day I have no symptoms. Unless I stop taking the glucosamine, and then in a few days my joints all start scratching again. It really bothers me a lot that I had to show desperate emotion to my doctor to just be told about it. If I hadn't she wouldn't have. But apparently the reason is that it doesn't work with everyone with osteoarthritis. Those it doesn't work with, it doesn't help at all. Maybe half the people who have it aren't helped. Which means that in some people, their bodies have stopped producing the glucosamine, an essential chemical in the slippery lining of the joints. And in the others, a different chemical is missing. If I was a medical researcher, I would definitely look for that chemical. It shouldn't be that hard to find. There's a fortune to be made there.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 May at 15:22 · Edited

Stan Burfield By the way, in osteoarthritis, apparently it usually begins with a stiffening of the fingers and then moves on to the other joints. So if someone has it only in certain joints or it begins elsewhere, chances are it's not osteoarthritis and glucosamine wouldn't help. Chances are.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 May at 16:50

Meredith Moeckel Thanks for sharing this! I've already been told that my right knee needs replacement due to arthritis, but it rarely hurts. And I'm sure that my left knee will definitely catch up with the same arthritis, and it hurts a lot! I've got a prescription for a knew xray cuz it's been killing me. I already had my pain doctor burn/kill the nerves around my left SIDE joint & for 6 months the pain in my knee was gone. I was certain that the pain in my left knee was referred pain from my SI joint. Anyway, I really don't mean to go overboard with all that is wrong with various parts of my anatomy .! I think that I'm going to get some & see if it'll help me. Do I just follow the recommended dose on the bottle? Many thanks for your help !!
Like · Reply · 19 May at 16:57

Stan Burfield Wow, you've been really suffering. Yeah, just take three 500 mg pills a day. Don't worry about the other stuff they want you to take with it, like Chondroiton. That's a scam. Chondroiton can't be absorbed through the gut. Only by needle. Anyway it's irrelevant. If the glucosamine works on your arthritis at all, you should start feeling it within a couple weeks at least. If not, it's not going to do you any good. But even if it does help, it's not going to totally fix your joints because they're too destroyed by now. Once the bone starts grinding on bone, it breaks off little chips which will cause pain even if the lining is restored. But it will certainly be better than it is now.
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 May at 17:09

Meredith Moeckel Gee thanks! smile emoticon
Like · Reply · 19 May at 20:26
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