Blogging as a dying man to dying men...

There's a story about a man fishing with his son. They both wrote about the day in their journals. The father wrote down all the difficulties of the day including not catching anything. He summed up his comments with "a totally wasted day." His son later wrote of the day and the time with his father as one of the happiest days of his life. Whatever tasks the father hoped to accomplish that day, they eluded him. It's clear the son was oriented to something more grand: tim

There's a scene from the movie The Patriot* that has been coming to my mind repeatedly. It's the scene right after his eldest son has been taken prisoner, his house burnt and one of his other sons is killed. I don't recommend watching the whole scene if you don't like violence, but the part that has been on my mind is his interaction with his two younger sons before the ambush. Here is the link, and you can stop after he talks to his sons to avoid any violence: https://www

My neutrophils have been taking a beating. [Caption: what chemo has done to my neotrophils... they need a break.] Yesterday, I didn't know what they were, but I've learned they are important for fighting infection. Before the scheduled treatment #5 yesterday, they took my blood, and while my white blood cells and other measurements were OK for treatment, the neutrophils were AWOL. Well, not really AWOL, but weren't a quorum. While their show rate was still better than mem

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…” First song I wanted to learn when I was a new believer. So much so, I wanted to learn the unsophisticated monkey instrument, (guitar) to be able to play and sing its tune. I wanted to sing to and for God! I’d only ever wanted to sing for my benefit before. Those first days of new life can’t be described effectively. They’re so beautiful because of the sheer, fresh juxtaposition of moving from being God’s e

Truth: We don't want to know the future. Why: God knows we couldn't handle it... neither in a holy way nor would it satisfy our real need. One of the coulda shoulda thoughts I have most is: "what if they could have caught my cancer sooner?" Unfortunately, that's not an easy question. More recently, we have learned, and haven't shared much, that the type of cancer I have is not only rare and aggressive and the type that a well-known celebrity had, (but in a different area