Dear friends,<\/p>\n
It is the first time since 2008 that I miss two weeks in a roll. So, at the very least you deserve a truthful explanation. No drama intended.<\/p>\n
The name of the beast is scoliosis\u2014in my column. Right now, I can\u2019t sleep, sit or walk properly, in and out of emergency room. But my spirit is up. I promise you that next week I will resume with our TMS Weekly Digest<\/em>. Otherwise, how am I going to pay my bills, right?<\/p>\n This thing is seasonal and for many years it didn\u2019t bother me as much. The opioids my doctor prescribes have been quite efficient\u2014if a bit expensive. Until now, there is.<\/p>\n They think because the spine is bent to 30 degrees to the left, it developed some extra strains in muscles and nerves around the organs. Thus, an incapacitating pain ensues, you have no idea. But thanks to the excellent health service in Portugal, I am in good hands. I do acupuncture as well.<\/p>\n In a nutshell. Nevertheless, the last thing I wish is to be taken as a victim or a whiner, because I am not. At the very least this is proof that I do have a spine.<\/p>\n I am not the one who is going to fold TRANSCEND Media Service<\/em>\u2014a vision of our Johan Galtung that I proudly carry on–simply because my back turned on me, for now. For as long as you support our work, we shall persevere. Another factor is, of course, if contributions come to below the red line; it is getting there slowly but surely. Impossible to live or work without money in our capitalist system. Unfortunately.<\/p>\n OK, my friends, this is my truth. Much milder than the truth of millions of Palestinians, as we speak. See you next week. A little prayer from believers like me would help. I will be 78 on 8 Feb and intend to celebrate it smiling and happy with loved ones and with your blessings. And with TMS<\/em> still making a difference for the better in our world. The posts below are what I could do this week. Sorry!<\/p>\n Antonio, still with a heavy heart, can\u2019t deny.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS: I have received so many messages of good wishes and encouragement that it would be impossible to reply to all. I apologize. But I read all of them and I know who you are. May goodness bless you. From my heart. THANK YOU!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear friends, it is the first time since 2008 that I miss two weeks in a roll. So, at the very least you deserve a truthful explanation. No drama intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252677"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252686,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252677\/revisions\/252686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}