Happy Sunday Everyone:
I’m sitting here trying to think of what I can say out of the gates to ensure this isn’t a “woe is me”, “feel sorry for me”, “wish me well”….I honestly want none of that nor is my current situation deserving of it, it’s just a situation that Kim and I are laughing about. What’s the situation? I’m sitting here typing from my big gray chair, had my nasal/sinus surgery last week to remove the polyps to hopefully get my taste and smell back after six months. I have stents in each nostril 5 inches long, I get to sleep up right, I get to do a nasal rinse 3-4X a day, which I’ve now determined is legalized waterboarding (for the next 200 days). The kicker, and totally separate, because I believe that tan fat looks better than pale fat, Kim let me know the day after surgery, the thing on my nose is cancer and the I get to do 17, 30- minute surface-radiation-therapy rounds starting next week to hopefully make it go away, turns out 15 SPF sun block doesn’t quite cut it. NONE of this is life threatening, unless of course one of the stents stabs me in the brain. So, Kim and I are sitting here, laughing, asking “what the hell happened this year”, while celebrating our 23-year anniversary (today).
Not everyone has the luxury of great health. If you have good/great health, take care of your stuff. I can’t control Covid, but I didn’t have my taste in January, I could have been after this a lot sooner for resolution. My nose, those bumps have been on there for 3 months. I just “assumed” it would go away until Kim and one of my students forced me to make an appt. It’s just dumb. Because I’m like most of you, I realize this point is falling on deaf ears because until it happens to me, I’m not smart enough to do something about it. I would only challenge you to ask if you’re capable of learning without being hit over the head with the worst-case situation in which case you then have to deal with it regardless, I’m turning into Dr. Hunter.
I never want to be thankful for having something that someone else doesn’t, or finding peace for not being in someone else’s situation, but how do we stay grateful for the simple things? I don’t think you can appreciate every taste of that cab, or every bite of that carrot or steak, whatever, but somehow, we need to keep our heads in the right place as often as possible. Our team is finishing our book report on “Atomic Habits”, they asked a guy in a wheelchair a question of “how does it feel to be so confined to this wheelchair”, his response was “I’m not confined to this wheelchair, I’m liberated by it”. Point being, the situation is there regardless, his perspective is what matters. My situation is what it is, my perspective has changed, of which I’m grateful.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and taste something for me!!