Each death is like a rock chip flung into the armour of cancer survivors. You know exactly where it came from, but it's a hurtful surprise anyway. Ted Kennedy represented many hopes for many people over the years. And his valiant fight against cancer, both the disease and the health care system in which it occurred, was fierce and loud as well as quiet and compassionate. Ted, Bruce, Larry, Benj, Debbie, Rhonda, Charlie, Jackson. Too many. Too many to come.
The numbers are a stark reality. Today, 33,000 people around the world will be diagnosed with cancer. By 2010 cancer will be the leading cause of death worldwide. By 2020 more than 10 million people will die from cancer every year. By 2050, 27 million new cases and more than 17 million deaths.
Currently, every day in the United States, more than 1500 people die of cancer. 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in the US will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
Yet hope lives. Ted Kennedy said in 1980, "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
In 2008, Kennedy had not given up, renewing his and our determination once more when he said, "The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on."
It is worth noting that Kennedy always paired "hope" with "work".
So beyond our grief, Kennedy's death is a renewed call to action. For each cancer survivor, for every friend and family member, it's immediate and personal. It is a safe bet that each of you out there has been touched.
What are you waiting for? What world will you live in? What world will your children and grandchildren inherit?
Visit http://www.livestrongaction.org/. Join the 1,337,385 (and counting) people around the world uniting to fight for a world without cancer. Right now.
Dream. Hope. Work.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
PALIN & PELOSI
What are women to learn from the two most prominent women in politics in 2009?
First there are the contrasts: Palin is old school, sweetheart queen, barely educated, appeal to the emotions and cry if you don't get your own way. Pelosi is smart, savvy, pay your dues, play with the big boys and best them at their own game.
Both strategies come in for huge criticism from the opposing camp; especially the men. Palin never makes it into the big boys club and suffers the casual derision that masquerades as a pedestal while never being taken completely seriously. Pelosi is respected and even feared as a player but never accorded human female status and suffers the awed but equally derisive admiration of skill but "I wouldn't want to have her as a mother/wife."
And what does the striking similarity - careful, impeccable dressing - say?
While I am sure that there are friends and family who know the multidimensional women Palin and Pelosi, most of the world sees the one dimensional reflection in the face of the powerful and the media.
Perhaps those reflections are accurate. But it is more likely that they are partly true, partly false and wholly a product of our continuing inability to move women, especially public women, into the human race with all its variety of roles, looks, opinions and relationships.
What can we learn from the two most prominent women in politics in 2009? That the fight for equality is far from won.
First there are the contrasts: Palin is old school, sweetheart queen, barely educated, appeal to the emotions and cry if you don't get your own way. Pelosi is smart, savvy, pay your dues, play with the big boys and best them at their own game.
Both strategies come in for huge criticism from the opposing camp; especially the men. Palin never makes it into the big boys club and suffers the casual derision that masquerades as a pedestal while never being taken completely seriously. Pelosi is respected and even feared as a player but never accorded human female status and suffers the awed but equally derisive admiration of skill but "I wouldn't want to have her as a mother/wife."
And what does the striking similarity - careful, impeccable dressing - say?
While I am sure that there are friends and family who know the multidimensional women Palin and Pelosi, most of the world sees the one dimensional reflection in the face of the powerful and the media.
Perhaps those reflections are accurate. But it is more likely that they are partly true, partly false and wholly a product of our continuing inability to move women, especially public women, into the human race with all its variety of roles, looks, opinions and relationships.
What can we learn from the two most prominent women in politics in 2009? That the fight for equality is far from won.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Secret Life of Bees
I read and loved Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees when it first was published in 2001. At the time it seemed one more lovely, insightful book on my long list of 'I really liked that book and wish everyone would read it'.
Last night I watched the movie. In a rare deviation from my deep infatuation with the printed word, the movie is a giant step beyond the book. For a movie where I already knew the ending and which is at its heart not truly a mystery story, it was an edge of the seat viewing from beginning to end.
There is much in the story of any life and more in these lives than some others. But the telling never winced from that which was hard or true. There was pain, anguish, anger and confusion. There was also love, companionship, respect and joy.
Looking back, one other fact distinguished the movie from the book. President Obama.
Somehow Obama's election between the reading of the book and the watching of the movie caused a subtle shift from a 'they' to 'we' story. I can't quite put my finger on the exact cause and moment of this feeling. And part of me suspects I wouldn't care for the answer and what it implies about my previous "unbiased" state of mind. But truly for me the book was "their" story and the movie was "our" story. Maybe sometimes we don't recognize the more illusive forms of exclusion until we see and touch its opposite.
I am grateful for a good read, a spectacular performance and a world in which we all can grow and change. Each of our stories should be told as well as The Secret Life of Bees.
Last night I watched the movie. In a rare deviation from my deep infatuation with the printed word, the movie is a giant step beyond the book. For a movie where I already knew the ending and which is at its heart not truly a mystery story, it was an edge of the seat viewing from beginning to end.
There is much in the story of any life and more in these lives than some others. But the telling never winced from that which was hard or true. There was pain, anguish, anger and confusion. There was also love, companionship, respect and joy.
Looking back, one other fact distinguished the movie from the book. President Obama.
Somehow Obama's election between the reading of the book and the watching of the movie caused a subtle shift from a 'they' to 'we' story. I can't quite put my finger on the exact cause and moment of this feeling. And part of me suspects I wouldn't care for the answer and what it implies about my previous "unbiased" state of mind. But truly for me the book was "their" story and the movie was "our" story. Maybe sometimes we don't recognize the more illusive forms of exclusion until we see and touch its opposite.
I am grateful for a good read, a spectacular performance and a world in which we all can grow and change. Each of our stories should be told as well as The Secret Life of Bees.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Losing a Child
In the textbook of life, if one can learn grief, empathizing without (thankfully) truly understanding, then today was one more heartbreaking and terrifying lesson.
Jamie was 34 and his mother is my friend. Not that it matters, but death came in a car accident.
The news stunned me into silence. The funeral leaves me staring at the pictures of my own child and grandchildren with both gratitude and fear; fear which is always, has always been present, but fear usually buried beneath daily life.
My helpless words never breach the shell and while my shoulder absorbs the tears it cannot restore. Mother, Father, wife, two very small children whose lives are forever altered. My imagining encompasses a mere speck of the reality. To me, a child lost seems the most hideous of bereavements.
Even the strongest life is fragile.
Jamie was 34 and his mother is my friend. Not that it matters, but death came in a car accident.
The news stunned me into silence. The funeral leaves me staring at the pictures of my own child and grandchildren with both gratitude and fear; fear which is always, has always been present, but fear usually buried beneath daily life.
My helpless words never breach the shell and while my shoulder absorbs the tears it cannot restore. Mother, Father, wife, two very small children whose lives are forever altered. My imagining encompasses a mere speck of the reality. To me, a child lost seems the most hideous of bereavements.
Even the strongest life is fragile.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
A ROOM FULL OF WISDOM
One of the great joys of my retirement was being asked to join a Book Club - something a job with uncertain and long hours made such a regular commitment difficult. And I do so love to read. Every day. It is a love I come by from a family of readers. No book given to Mom, a sister, a husband or a daughter goes unread and then unpassed to all the others. We even have a system of post-it designations for ownership and who has read each book thus far. Our own private library system.
But a Book Club is special; a group for whom the express purpose is to read, reflect and discuss a common book; a group that brings, shares and mingles its various backgrounds, life experiences and points of view into one thoughtful, vigorous and sometimes hilarious discussion.
My good fortune was being asked into a long standing group of women of high intelligence, considerable passion and a wide variety of worldly wisdom and involvement. We are never "just" discussing a book, but the ideas and life that the book expresses for each of us.
The deeper we roam through and the further afield we roam from book specifics, the more I appreciate the insights and experiences of each woman; women who reach out to others, who welcome new people, who believe that expanding and including are healthy yet value the foundations of an ongoing discourse. And each month I am struck anew at the sheer mass of wisdom that resides in these women. Truly, a room full of wisdom.
But a Book Club is special; a group for whom the express purpose is to read, reflect and discuss a common book; a group that brings, shares and mingles its various backgrounds, life experiences and points of view into one thoughtful, vigorous and sometimes hilarious discussion.
My good fortune was being asked into a long standing group of women of high intelligence, considerable passion and a wide variety of worldly wisdom and involvement. We are never "just" discussing a book, but the ideas and life that the book expresses for each of us.
The deeper we roam through and the further afield we roam from book specifics, the more I appreciate the insights and experiences of each woman; women who reach out to others, who welcome new people, who believe that expanding and including are healthy yet value the foundations of an ongoing discourse. And each month I am struck anew at the sheer mass of wisdom that resides in these women. Truly, a room full of wisdom.
Friday, March 20, 2009
AIG...Postscript
OK...we are all angry. It has been a good week to raise our voices, proclaim our disgust and make suggestions that go beyond recoup and verge on revenge.
There. Do you feel better now?
Will anything we, the President or the Congress does to recover these funds help the economy recover, establish one new job, save our monetary system, send stocks soaring?
No? Well then, how about moving on the the real stuff. It is not that the anger wasn't deserved. It was. It's not that the perpetrators of this shameful episode shouldn't know what the public thinks. They should. And it is not even that appropriate, considered steps shouldn't be taken in response (Note that response may or may not include recovery.) They should.
But we have bigger fish to fry. Anger over the economy channeled at a convenient, but incorrect target won't get a job, a home, a family or a life back. Instead it will be a distraction working to slow or prevent true recovery. Or to hide the real dilemmas and the real culprits.
Get real. Move on.
There. Do you feel better now?
Will anything we, the President or the Congress does to recover these funds help the economy recover, establish one new job, save our monetary system, send stocks soaring?
No? Well then, how about moving on the the real stuff. It is not that the anger wasn't deserved. It was. It's not that the perpetrators of this shameful episode shouldn't know what the public thinks. They should. And it is not even that appropriate, considered steps shouldn't be taken in response (Note that response may or may not include recovery.) They should.
But we have bigger fish to fry. Anger over the economy channeled at a convenient, but incorrect target won't get a job, a home, a family or a life back. Instead it will be a distraction working to slow or prevent true recovery. Or to hide the real dilemmas and the real culprits.
Get real. Move on.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
MISSING THE POINT WITH AIG
Who among us is worth a multi-million dollar bonus? Even the justifiable public anger seems to have its face turned in the wrong direction. And shameless greed, while accurate to a large degree, still misses the moral target.
No one is talking here of robbing multi-millionaire Peter, who earned it, to pay street bum Paul, who did no work.
No one is talking here of equal pay for all work, regardless of effort.
No, what we have here is a system so out of whack, so filled with individual greed, so focused on personal gain even at the expense of the hand that feeds you that its workers can no longer distinguish right from wrong; because "that's how the system works."
Or currently, doesn't work. Contrary to common wisdom, it is not the presence of taxpayer dollars which makes this system and its minions wrong. It is just plain, old fashioned wrong.
I am tempted to remind one and all of every time management said during contract negotiations that they could not pay a living wage, provide insurance or allow sick leave because to do so would bankrupt the company. But the current company robbery makes unions look like wimps.
The more potent question we all should be asking is "what is work worth"?
All too often this discussion devolves into comparisons of doctors, daycare, teachers, emergency services - those who directly enhance or save lives versus sales, tradesmen, factory workers, municipal workers - those who keep our lives clean and filled with the material things we both need and want. (My vote goes to Mothers for the highest paid job on earth.)
Such a false premise for dialog can only lead down dead end paths. And one such dead end path is the belief of an individual employee that doing his or her job well should be monetarily rewarded beyond the remuneration set for that job.
For example, what about all those AIG employees who did not receive a bonus? Are we to infer that they did not do their job? That they are about to be fired for failure to perform? Of course not. It is likely they received fair pay for the job they were expected to do and did well.
One irony with AIG is that even they agree that the people who received bonuses are not the only people who could have done the jobs for which bonuses were paid.
So...they did their jobs, probably quite well, and they got paid well for doing those jobs. But bonuses not tied to the well-being of the company for whom all this was supposedly done? Bonuses, based on a single year, not the long haul for the company, lead to a whole lot of freelance "I must get mine and the rest of the world be screwed" attitude.
Still, who are these people so bereft of a moral compass; so blind and deaf to the larger world in which they are a mere disposable piece? Are they a portend or a symptom of what we all have become?
And when will the United States build a country and an economy in which all are paid on how well you do your job and not on which job creates wealth for a select few.
No one is talking here of robbing multi-millionaire Peter, who earned it, to pay street bum Paul, who did no work.
No one is talking here of equal pay for all work, regardless of effort.
No, what we have here is a system so out of whack, so filled with individual greed, so focused on personal gain even at the expense of the hand that feeds you that its workers can no longer distinguish right from wrong; because "that's how the system works."
Or currently, doesn't work. Contrary to common wisdom, it is not the presence of taxpayer dollars which makes this system and its minions wrong. It is just plain, old fashioned wrong.
I am tempted to remind one and all of every time management said during contract negotiations that they could not pay a living wage, provide insurance or allow sick leave because to do so would bankrupt the company. But the current company robbery makes unions look like wimps.
The more potent question we all should be asking is "what is work worth"?
All too often this discussion devolves into comparisons of doctors, daycare, teachers, emergency services - those who directly enhance or save lives versus sales, tradesmen, factory workers, municipal workers - those who keep our lives clean and filled with the material things we both need and want. (My vote goes to Mothers for the highest paid job on earth.)
Such a false premise for dialog can only lead down dead end paths. And one such dead end path is the belief of an individual employee that doing his or her job well should be monetarily rewarded beyond the remuneration set for that job.
For example, what about all those AIG employees who did not receive a bonus? Are we to infer that they did not do their job? That they are about to be fired for failure to perform? Of course not. It is likely they received fair pay for the job they were expected to do and did well.
One irony with AIG is that even they agree that the people who received bonuses are not the only people who could have done the jobs for which bonuses were paid.
So...they did their jobs, probably quite well, and they got paid well for doing those jobs. But bonuses not tied to the well-being of the company for whom all this was supposedly done? Bonuses, based on a single year, not the long haul for the company, lead to a whole lot of freelance "I must get mine and the rest of the world be screwed" attitude.
Still, who are these people so bereft of a moral compass; so blind and deaf to the larger world in which they are a mere disposable piece? Are they a portend or a symptom of what we all have become?
And when will the United States build a country and an economy in which all are paid on how well you do your job and not on which job creates wealth for a select few.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)