On this suddenly warm night in mid-June, I stand on my deck, leaning casually over the railing. I look down into the street below, and watch just-graduated seniors from the local high school walk, or skip like 10-year-olds, or skateboard (with lit cigars in hand) toward the lot where their family&...
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this is so beautiful
Laurie Kingston
Monday, June 16, 2008 at 11:52 AM -
The Next Generation
jamie
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 01:10 PMAnd your own best seller is coming out when? You have a knack for writing and hitting the nail right on the head! What a great piece!
Just a few years ago I was one of those parents of a high school graduate...but I was the one skipping!! Having been diagnosed with cancer in his junior year, I set goals...make it to graduation...then see that he gets off to college. Once that happened, I wanted to make it to my first grandchild (different son)! I have now made it to Heaven on Earth....being with my granddaughter on the ice (Hi PJ...it's me jamie!). Setting goals for myself is a big part of my life.
One sobering question though....if cancer has been around for over 3,000 years (according to one source) .... what on earth is taking them so FREAKISHLY LONG to cure it!!!
jamie
replyre: The Next Generation
PJ Hamel
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 03:30 PMHi Jamie! Thanks for your kind comments. I'm so glad you've made all your milestones - including a grandchild. I'm SO looking forward to that, but who knows, right?
I think there was NO progress towards curing cancer for long, long, time. And then sloooowwww progress. Now the pace is accelerating. I have a friend who's a cancer researcher, and she says they're "that close" (imagine her fingers about 1/4" apart) to making cancer at least a chronic disease, if not curable - yet. More and more of us are living with it (thus the need for survivorship initiatives); clearly we've made progress in our own lifetime. (Remember when "the C word" meant an automatic death sentence?) Jamie - we'll get there. I believe that. And we all have to hang onto life (for dear life!) in the meantime. - PJ
replyre: re: The Next Generation
jamie
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 04:43 PMOH PJ! I "see" a granddaughter in your future! She will be so into figure skating you will wonder how she is yours!!!
And when you go to her first competition (in the diamond studded dress you bought her, of course) her coach and the judges will have to patiently ask you to 'back off the wall with your camera' so as not to disrupt the competitor...which, you will have to tell them....just happens to be your very talented granddaughter!!!Yes, I can see it now. I can't wait to read all about that adventure!! Ok...there's my next goal...PJ's granddaughter on ice! Better yet! I will give her her first lesson...free of charge, of course!
jamie
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This piece really touched me. I often look at my boys and wonder if their beautiful bodies will one day be ravaged by cancer. I can only bear to think these thoughts for a second. Yes- a cure in their lifetime would be wonderful.
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