Bad News

There is perhaps nothing quite so disconcerting than to wake up with one of your eyes grotesquely swollen. Actually, I suppose waking up with both eyes grotesquely swollen would be worse. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of things that would be more disconcerting than waking up with a grotesquely swollen eye...waking up with a severed, bloody horse head in your bed comes to mind...but that’s not important right now. What’s important is the fact that my left eye looks like what the Elephant Man would look like after 10 rounds with Muhammad Ali. Looks like I’m going to have to postpone that GQ photo shoot until another day. I will spare all of you the hideous picture.

There are people dealing with far worse than a swollen eye this morning. One of them is a dear friend of mine who I learned yesterday is dealing with an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis. The news staggered me. News like this always does. I hear about a contemporary who is gravely ill or who has passed away and it always stuns me. How can it be possible that so-and-so is sick? She’s...my age. 

In this case it’s an amazing lady who I have known for the better part of 30 years. I first met her back in my old Life of Virginia days. She does what I do for a living, so over the years we have attended many meetings and gone on many conventions together. She’s a blast to hang around, nearly as ADHD as I am, and so easy to tease because of her Virginia Hillbilly accent. She’s one of those people who it is practically impossible not to love. When I heard the news, I called her, hoping to cheer her up. She didn’t need it. Her deep and abiding faith is sustaining her, her naturally optimistic personality protects her from fatalism. If this cancer can be licked, she will be the one to do it.

So, my friend will have top priority in my prayers for a while. Plus. . . I sent her links to some of my worst Dad Joke blogposts. Not sure if that was a good or bad idea.