A Life-Changer

Typically, every January 1^st I review my prior year’s list of goals and mark off those I’ve accomplished and add to the list my new goals for the new year. I’ve been doing this for at least 30+ years. I never expect to complete everything, but figure I accomplish far more by having the list than not. This year was different. There was no list, just the dread of 2015.

Most of you already know that our daughter, Jana, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late November. It took me a week before I could say those words without crying. If it wasn’t believable then, it is now. We’ve been with Jana on her initial visits to both the City of Hope and UCLA and a follow-up visit to UCLA where she is receiving her treatment. A couple of weeks ago we spent the day with her as she received her first chemotherapy treatment and we’ll be returning to LA next week to accompany her to her second chemo treatment. We talk to her several times a day (as we always have) and, although not wanting to worry us, she shares some of what she’s experiencing: migraine headaches (a rare side effect experienced mostly by young women with cancer), blurred vision (also associated with younger patients), nausea, and most recently, hair loss.

Through this devastating experience to date, Jana’s strength and her wonderful sense of humor (she considers a handicapped sticker for her car one of the benefits of having cancer) have shone. Her concerns have been more for her immediate family (Lauren, Verne, and me) than herself. That same tenacious spirit she showed at law school and more recently with her career are present once more…she will be a cancer survivor! I’ve included the following pictures, because they seem to say it all: this past weekend when her hair began to fall out, she and her friends, Nicole and Jashwal, tried out a few new hairdo’s. The experience was not without tears; according to Jana, there was just a “little” crying.

I continue to be hopeful that at some point in the future we’ll look back on this experience and find something good and positive that has come from it. For now, we’re just trying to cope with this life-changing event with lots of love, laughter, and good times together (according to Jana, another benefit of having cancer is seeing her parents more often).

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

From Lauren Moser's blog, Thoughts of a Bookworm at Home...I love all of my daughter's blogs, but I found this one in particular to be very special and appropriate for today.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, more commonly known as MLK Day. I must admit that I fall into the category of most Americans who often think of a holiday as merely a fun day off work. The actual meaning of the day is lost somewhere in the excitement of a three-day weekend  or an unexpected break in the middle of a work week. The big holidays are easy to remember and celebrate because we, as a people, have created some sort of spectacle that goes along with them. Fireworks on the 4th of July (Independence Day), carols and trees at Christmas, shopping turkey at Thanksgiving. I hear the reminders to thank our veterans on Veteran's Day and to think of laborers on Labor's Day...actually, I have no idea what we're really celebrating on Labor's Day (although wikipedia tells me I'm right), which just goes to show my point...but I rarely stop to truly consider what the holiday means and I usually just pass by those reminders with a nod and a thought of "oh yeah, I should do that." Some holidays are universally acknowledged, but not universally understood or truly celebrated. Their meaning is lost because we don't attach some sort of visual or event to that day. It's just an extra day off work and that seems to be enough. But should it be? Shouldn't we take the time to remember why we celebrate these days? What was so important and meaningful to our country that our nation decided to declare this day a national holiday, a day everyone would be free to celebrate? Well, Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to celebrate an amazing man in American history. A man who fought for equality and rights for all. I think that is something worth remembering. Monday is more than just the third day in a long weekend. Monday is a day to remember a man who helped lead a movement that brought truth to the words stated in our Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal.

A holiday is coming up, it's time to celebrate.
Some time off work, put up your feet, but there's more, just wait.
Think about what this day really means to us,
Freedom, civil liberties, and a world a tad more just.
We must reflect on our lives today and how we can improve,
To get closer to The Dream, it just may behoove
Us all to work on the way we treat the people around,
Regardless of race, religion or creed, or where they can be found.
So let us celebrate Dr. King in the proper way,
And reduce our prejudice a little more each day. 

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, everyone.