Cleft Lip and Palate awareness

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Children with serious cleft lip or cleft palate issues might suffer their entire lives with many problems including speech, dental as well as emotional ridicule because of their physical appearance.

As many of you reading this don’t likely know, I was born with a minor cleft lip. I was fortunate to have surgery at Stanford when I was very young but my Mom and Dad were severely traumatized.

While I was lucky and very fortunate to not have major problems in my life, the sad truth is that cleft lip and cleft palate are extremely serious problems for millions of children. I write to bring attention to this important cause because it can have devesting impact on lives whether it be physical or emotional.

Children with serious cleft lip or cleft palate issues might suffer their entire lives with many problems including speech, dental as well as emotional ridicule because of their physical appearance.

As you might tell, I’m passionate about this cause and I would like to do what I can do bring more awareness so if you have a comment or resource, please let me know.

I have not vetted the organizations below but at least here are some references:

https://www.smiletrain.org/patients-families/counseling-support

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1416766441871886/

Cleft Lip & Palate Support Groups

Seeing Clearly

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This week I’ve had this epiphany just to share an unvarnished version of my blog.

As I stated in 2009 (https://www.kevinneal.com/blog/2009/02/) when I started my blog, being transparent was what I will do!

So, against my resistance, I went to a local optometrist who was so wonderful!

After talking with the him for nearly an hour, he assured me that simple age, and especially stress can negativity affect vision. I always thought that the mind can overcome physical issues, but I was wrong. The way that that eye doctor explained was that our eyes naturally are gifted to focus, and there are eye-muscles to do this work even though it’s unconscious to us.

He explained, when we age those eye-muscles that help us focus just don’t work as well. Sort of like when our eye-muscles tend to breakdown then they don’t, coincidently enough, work as expected and cause headaches because it’s such a sincere effort to “see” which is something we are accustomed to naturally.

Also, as far as seeing clearly I know for a fact that this blog is under data surveillance, which is rather pathetic, but it is-what-it-is and those who choose to snoop so low are empty souls.  God Bless them as I pray that they eventually find happiness in their lives instead of the destruction they’ve caused. So, I say “hello and welcome” to our viewers and thanks to contributing to higher viewership.

I hope this valuable data of my Pet Family, Personal Life, Movie Reviews and basic business dealings that you can scrape from my publicly available blog gives you great satisfaction. I will not change my faith in humanity for your selfish, monetary, greed.

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) – Movie Review

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Set in Mexico, nun Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) is rescued from three cowboys by Hogan (Clint Eastwood), who is on his way to do some reconnaissance for a future mission to capture a French fort. The French are chasing Sara, but not for the reasons she tells Hogan, so he decides to help her in return for information about the fort defenses. Inevitably, the two become good friends, but Sara has a secret.—Rob Hartill

Two Mules for Sister Sara is another Clint Eastwood classic. This is a fun movie of unexpected twists. The plot is very simple and both Clint and Shirley MacLaine played magnificent roles as very believable characters.

In his role as Hogan, Clint Eastwood, is his typical cowboy wandering the wild west when he stumbles upon Sister Sara riding a mule in the rough and tough desert land. The movie has many subtle funny scenes where Hogan and Sara are the dastardly (Clint) and the righteous (Shirley).

What’s all the more funny is that after I watched this movie a few times, I learned that Clint and Shirley were actually a couple! Upon reflection, I could sense that their relationship in the movie was quite genuine and it warms my heart to know how much fun making this movie must have been for them.

As far as the movie goes, basically it’s Hogan and Sara traveling together until they reach the main purpose of their adventure which is to save Sara from a ruthless bunch of Mexican bandits.

I highly recommend Two Mules for Sister Sara as a fun watch. It’s an adventure of this two fun people which is quite entertaining. I would give Two Mules for Sister Sara 9 out of 10 Steelers Stars.

High Plains Drifter (1973) – Movie Review

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High Plains Drifter (1973 – Clint Eastwood) is one of my all time favorite movies. Not because it’s action-filled or the typically Hollywood fancy stunt scenes. Rather, this movie had Clint Eastwood’s rather tough guy attitude and a very simple example of decency all rolled-up into one cigar-smoke.

The storyline of the movie is very simple, yet very deep also. I’ve seen this movie probably over 50 times now and I continue to be amazed at the powerful message of redemption that I had at the end of each viewing.

The plot of the movie was based in the town of Lago, and this town of Lago had a dirty little secret that they had hung a sheriff. The residents of Lago knew what they had done was wrong but there is no way to undue something such as a lynching.

So, Clint Eastwood (as the High Plains Drifter), comes into Lago as sort-of a ghost to teach the residents of Lago a lesson. Ironically enough, the High Plains Drifter, carefully plots his revenge to coincide with the return of three criminals that also want revenge on Lago.

This movie is fairly dark in it’s delivery so don’t watch High Plains Drifter if you are looking for a feel good story. HPD is about taking responsibility and not going along with the crowd for convenience. This movie is about the opportunity to make amends and not waiting too long to do this.