Writer Ken Kesey, author of the iconic, pioneering 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, never lost his footing in his finest work, writing of the misunderstood and the struggle against the system, adapting personal experiences from working the night shift in a psychiatric ward at a mental institution. Kesey never accepted that the patients were insane, but instead that the world had cast them out, given they did not meet conformist standards of behavior. There are great parallels in Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, as we press forward in faith, hope, and humor.

I was to meet the Very Reverend Tracey Lind, retired Dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, for morning coffee recently at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans on Outer Cape Cod. We’ve become good friends. She preaches during the summer at the Chapel of St. James the Fisherman in nearby Wellfleet, and still writes with great talent on her blog titled, “Interrupted by God.” A victim of frontotemporal dementia, a subject of a CBS 60 Minutes segment, Tracy is an inspiration to me. I wanted to be on good behavior, but wasn’t dressed for the occasion. It still has Tracey laughing…