
What do you do to celebrate a cancerversary as some call it?
Well I woke up a cute girl who somehow intuitively had made an I love you daddy
heart. Perhaps, it was as a response to the heart of stone I brought her back
from a trip I had over the weekend in Colorado. In the strange blessings that
have come I’ve gotten to run in Colorado, Vermont, and Idaho this year in some
serious elevation… talk about a runner’s high. But on the trip to Colorado, there was fun dancing, great eating, one of the big highlight was that I got
to hang out with an old friend, Leandro Bizama. He was a friend who I knew in
high school, who after college graduation convinced me to volunteer in the
South Pacific as a high school teacher in the Marshall Islands, who came
shortly after the biopsy and shortly after the surgery. The Marshallese, at
least when I was there 10 years ago, were not very punctual, internet barely
existed there and being a teacher was tough because a huge percentage of those
with or without education ended up in very similar occupations, since there’s
only so many options on an island that’s 4 square miles. We reminisced about
old days but I was
reminded of an old phrase that the Marshallese have, “Present
company is always more important than future company.” This was the rationale/motivation/excuse
for the lack of unpunctuality because if you were with someone and enjoying
their company, it was far ruder to leave it than it was to keep someone else
waiting. I know that’s against the American approach generally speaking and
there is an argument to be made of why one culture is known for being more productive
than the other but still… while I was in Colorado for 3 days, I am sad to admit
that it took 33 years to achieve this but for the first time in my entire adult
life, I went three days in a row without setting an alarm. In simple honesty, the body is too well tuned
to getting up early so I did and still ran every day but it somehow made
falling asleep each night easier.
And, while I didn’t achieve it as well as I should have, I
tried to stay off my phone more. )It was great when I was in places were there gorgeous mountains covered in snow and trees and waterfalls and no phone reception). But when there was I semi copped out beause I had friends doing Spartan races and the New
York marathon and of course there was the Cowboys game and hearing in on how
church went and how cute somebody’s kids were that day... I’m a guy who obviously
over shares between this blog and facebook and they are a way to make a human
connection. But there is no scene more ironic to me than when I go to a party or a restaurant and there is a table full of people and every one of them is on
their phone and none of them are having that old fashioned thing called conversation.
I’ve made deals with people that whoever is the first to pick up their phone at
the table picks up the tab, both one on one and in a group setting. For me,
before this all started in 2010, I’d never had internet access at home, didn’t
have a smart phone. I got the technology oddly enough due to cancer to research
the medical things, to connect with people who weren’t around every day more
efficiently. It helped with those things and I’m a guy with memory problems so
it helps to be able to take quick pictures and make quick notes and sometimes
play the rehab games right on the fly (the get an ipad recommendation actually
came from a neuropsychologist who said you could turn it on and work on things
more efficiently than in a book or a notebook or on a computer).

I know there are times we make big deals out of
anniversaries and birthdays. When I was married I treated each one of those
sacred, taking each of those days off and doing something fun… well look how
well that worked out. But the reason was that I’d neglected some daily things…
so what am I doing today to celebrate life? I made Kiana breakfast, walked her
to school, I’m going to iron my laundry, go to Costco, have lunch with some good
friends, do my lumosity brain rehab, do some homework with her, do a track
workout with more good friends and then put her to bed.

I love the quote about "present company" - I think the Guatemalans have a similar outlook! :-)
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