Yesterday

Yesterday was a good day. Nothing more special than celebrating 4 years free of prostate cancer with a doctor appointment and PSA of 0.06. Anything under 1 is good and I've been consistently either 0.04 or 0.06. Tuesday is one year since my last chemo treatment and beginning of remission. So I guess I like seeing June come and go. Better than Christmas in a sense!

Acoustic Switch

The WSJ reports today that the use of an acoustic switch while not required by the US may have prevented the blowout now slinging oil toward the fragile ecosystems in South Louisiana and Alabama. An acoustic switch is another layer of safety that has never been tested but is in common use in the North Sea. Obviously the primary switch isn't going to work and it is impossible to tell if an acoustic switch would have worked. For the savings of $500,000 by not having the acoustic switch, we now have a multi-billion dollar disaster occurring.

The oil industry is going to catch hell and off-shore drilling may be at risk because of $500,000. We recall thousands of cribs because 13 children have died in them but we don't have brains enough to mandate a third level of well safety. Oh, there will be a lot of Congressional hearings on this disaster for the usual theatrics but it's tough to fix a bad haircut or an entire Southern coast of the US covered with oil.

Friendship(s)

Friendships are strange and rarely last through life. I had childhood friends, college friends, army friends, banking friends. I haven't had much contact, if any, over the last many years with any of them.

I have friends in the various places we've lived. I have friends gained through geocaching. Once 3 of us were nearly inseparable and now we only talk occasionally.

I have Facebook friends I have never met. They've been important at one time or another but we've never had drinks and I only know what they want to share on FB. Some of my closest cyber friends came from Whole Wheat Radio chat. The chat is virtually gone now and so we occasionally talk through FB. One of those friends is actively alienating friends though I doubt he knows.

So friendships are strange and in the end only last while we have interests in common. BFF is a commonly used abbreviation but we should drop the last "F" or add a "?".

So why all the effort to have friends? Maybe I'll think about that and answer later.

Time to get back.

It's time to prioritize what is important to me. First, I need to spend some time here each day to comment about something or think out loud. Another is to get on that guitar each day. Less time spent reading what others have posted around the web and investing more time in writing and playing the guitar will be much more satisfactory.

I read last week that research shows that obese men are 58% more likely to die from a recurrence of Prostate Cancer. So my third goal is to loose weight by doing what I like to do: ride my bike and geocache.

Let's see how I do.

Hangover

Before I tell about my hangover, one correction. The last blog talks about my last day at chemo. That didn't happen. First, in my anxiousness to get it over I miscounted the number of treatments I'd had. Then the doctor decided I should have 2 more, which even after chemo last week still means 2 more I think. Oh well! Anything for a long remission!!

Hangover - Yes, I have a hangover today! Not from alcohol but from the glorious weekend! Sunshine and warm weather mixed with the sights and sounds of people outside having fun, doing yard work or just hanging out was a blessing after what seems like a long winter. I am totally amazed at how quickly the trees got leaves. It's like you could hear it happening. All of this combined to lift me above the normal chemo side-effects. My spirit overcame the urging of my body to slow down. It was great!

This is a great time of year! The migrant birds are returning. Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows, Fox Sparrows and soon swallows. A trip to Potter Marsh on Saturday gave me a glimpse of 2 Arctic Terns on a rest break before heading further North.

Today it is back to work but the weekend weather continues and memories are still fresh. I hope the hangover continues through the week!

The End and the Beginning

This is a week with an end and a beginning of a different sort. The end of chemo and the beginning of remission. There is a sense of relief and of anticipation and nervousness. Relief that the side-effects of treatment will gradually disappear. Anticipation and nervousness over how long remission will last. There is no cure for my cancer. Only remission, relapse and remission until it wins. But I have been living for 3 years with prostate cancer on the same terms and I find that life goes on. I try to live each day to the fullest and put the anxiety aside. It only raises it's head when I approach the Doctor appointment to see how the PSA is doing. I suspect it will be the same with the lymphoma/leukemia. It's a waiting game to which I'm becoming accustomed. Worry is useless. Yesterday is gone, today is here now, tomorrow may never come!

Humility

Humility - something I'm terribly short of. We all want to blow our own horns when we are sucessful. We all want praise and to be acknowledged. I've always wanted to do something so after I am long gone, people could read about it in Wikipedia or some book. I would be memorialized for all time. I'd never be forgotten but remembered for doing something good.

Are most successful people humble? Are humble people successful? The media pours attention on the former but rarely on the later. There are many people that lead a successful life by raising a family, or going to work each day, or by being cloistered in a monastery. Is success only defined by being in the media or known in your community?

God put us on the earth and gave us time, talent, and treasure to use to his glory. When we use them we should give him praise for the results. That is humility. The first step to wisdom is fear of the Lord. Fear can mean many things but should mean we acknowledge His presence daily, hourly, by the minute and second and that we practice humility by thanking him for our successes, failures and for the gifts he has given us. We need to ask for his continued help to use the gifts as he intended and to make them grow by sharing with others. And we need to ask for help to recognize our failures as opportunity.

Humility is a virtue that is sorely missing in our society where abortion, for example, is justified by the concept that a woman has the right to control what happens to her body INCLUDING the actions that place that same body in a compromising situation. Gee I got caught; I'm pregnant. Now to get rid of the consequences so I can go on being responsible for my body my way.

How does abortion give glory to God who gave you the beautiful gift of reproduction??

Today I pray that God would give me one of the gifts I most need - humility.

Remember to begin all prayer by thanking God for the gifts he has given you!