I have been spending the last few days with my parents in Minneapolis. When I was growing up, my dad used to corner me (and likely my brother & sister too) and force me to have meaningful discussions. Meaning of life kind of stuff. Of course all we wanted to do was escape, and sink back in to an episode of Tom & Jerry, or a game of football in the yard with friends.
Education is good. Knowledge is good. Experience is good. Planning is good. A mentor is good. Street smarts are good. Advice is good. Common sense is good. Research is good.
I did a little flying this week, and I can only come to one conclusion; the airlines don't want us to check our bags. I can't imagine why, but there must be some top-secret reason that only airline industry insiders understand. There must be smart people behind big airline company desks that have decided it's in their best interest for you and me to carry it all on.
One of the little perks of my medical journey the past seven years has been colonoscopies. Lots of them. (Please try to contain your jealousy!) As the bumper sticker on my truck says, "What's up your butt? Get screened early & find out." It's important stuff. If you take something away from today it should be that there's no substitute for early cancer detection.
A good friend of mine is having a tumor removed today, and it brings back all kinds of memories for me. I wish he and his family the best of luck. My wife and I have walked many a mile in those shoes.
I had lunch with a friend yesterday who recently asked her kids what their goals were. Her 12-year old son said, "What are you talking about?" Her 15-year old daughter responded, "Mom, you're always putting so much pressure on me," and stormed out of the room. She laughed and asked if that made her a bad parent.
The world is changing. Now wait a minute. Take it easy. I didn't say the sky is falling, I said the world is changing. And that, by the way, is nothing new.
I watched the movie Up In The Air this weekend starring (much to my wife's delight) George Clooney. In the movie ol' George plays a corporate terminator, who other companies hire to come in and fire employees during downsizing. Much of the movie is Clooney's character sitting down in front of workers and letting them go. We are shown the emotional and financial impact on the terminated, and their reactions to the news. Some of it funny, some of it sad, all of it much too real. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of this going on in the world lately.
I was driving through the Target parking lot yesterday, and apparently the happy lady coming from the other direction was a tad bit upset with my driving. Sure I moved over in her direction a little (at 5 mph and accidentally). And she flipped out. Arms flailing, yelling (which was extremely effective in her car with the windows rolled up, but I could see her jaw flapping away).
I stopped in at my office yesterday afternoon to use the bathroom. I was running errands, and needed a little pit-stop. There's only one stall in our men's room, so choosing one wasn't difficult. I walked in, closed the door, and bam...no toilet paper on the roll. There were however two new rolls sitting on top of the toilet. Apparently the last occupant felt as though it was my job to change the roll. Who does that? (I'm afraid of the answer.)
I just finished reading The Art Of Racing In The Rain, by Garth Stein. Great story. In it, one of the characters is dying of cancer and was told she had eight months to live. She had a party the day she exceeded the 8-month mark proclaiming, "Today is the first day I'm not dead!" That is gratitude.
A while back I stopped at the store on the way home from work to grab some beer. (Which will come as a surprise to absolutely no one.) There was a table out front with a nice man sitting at it. He had a clip board and some pens on the table, and a big sign propped up behind him that read, "Sign up to receive the newspaper for FREE for 60 days, and get $10 in FREE groceries." What!?!
