Family Illness

September 23, 2008 at 5:54 pm (Musings, Personal Life) (, , , )

There’s a cousin in my family that’s sick. Very sick. She has cancer, and is going through treatment, but from what I gather the prognosis is still pretty unknown (though since I’m not hearing those reports first-hand, but rather through other family members, it’s hard to gauge what the status really is). No matter what the outcome, there is a battering of tests, treatments, and procedures, and most of these seem to range from uncomfortable to excruciating.

It’s odd when these things reach people we know. Stories of cancer and other such serious illnesses are usually news bites or inspirational stories that are as realistic as fairy tales — yet amazingly, sometimes fairy tales seem more real. They, too, are my experiences, intertwined with idioms and metaphors I use and memories of seeing the story again and again, whereas the typical stories of illness in our society seem distanced, and therefore more removed from us. Either they have a distinctly Christian slant, or they are trying to stir up some cliché notion through a cookie cutter formula of bad fiction. Even if the events are real, they are often written or told in such a typical, predictable way.

And yet in this situation, in which I am left with no story other than brief but frequent reports from other family members, I can see that this is worse. I don’t hear the narrative; narratives are safe. I only read the snippets: she’s going for this test, her family’s doing this, her child cried … these are all so much more frightening. What happens in between? Not knowing is frightening — and that, of course, is what is so frightening about illness and its (typically) most feared outcome of death.

The narratives are safe. They are wrapped in familiar cliché, and padded with structure. A comma goes where it must, an idiom reminds us we are all in the same culture, and the end will be predictable, however joyous or painful. The stories feature characters that we have no history with, no prior connection or experience.

In real life, outside of narrative, we are left drifting in uncharted waters.

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Hiking Mt Frissell

September 21, 2008 at 9:31 am (Personal Life, Photos) (, )

This weekend B’s dad came to visit us and to go hiking on Mt Frissell, which is by Mt Washington in Western Mass near the tri-state border of CT, NY, and MA.  Interestingly enough, Mt Frissell is listed as the highest point in CT, but this point is measured at the slope of Mt Frissell just over the MA/CT border, because the summit of this mountain is in Mass.

It was a great day for a hike — crisp morning (from 35 degrees at 6am) warming up to nearly 70 with cool breezes.  The hike itself was great for our out-of-shape bodies, too: some challenging steep rock faces mixed in with gentler slopes, enough to make us exhausted but not wake up too sore from it.

Some photos:

A view from the hike -- and were not at the top yet!

A view from the hike -- and we're not at the top yet!

B checks his stock, while his dad tries to order a pizza ("What do you mean they dont deliver?!"). Can you believe we got 3-4 bars? And not just one network, either.

B checks his stock, while his dad tries to order a pizza ("What do you mean they don't deliver?!"). Can you believe we got 3-4 bars? And not just one network, either.

Fortunately Bs dad was there to encourage B to have photos taken. This might be one of the under 5 photos that exist with the two of us in it -- after nearly three years, thats impressive!

Fortunately B's dad was there to encourage B to have photos taken. This might be one of the under 5 photos that exist with the two of us in it -- after nearly three years, that's impressive!

More photos from the hike here, or go to the entire photostream.

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Is anyone else seriously afraid of Palin becoming VP?

September 14, 2008 at 5:59 pm (News & Politics) (, , , , , , )

I think Matt Damon pretty much sums it up:

You do the actuary tables, you know, there’s a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn’t survive his first term, and it’ll be President Palin. … It’s just, it’s absurd.  It’s totally absurd, and I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about how absurd it is. …  It’s a really terrifying possibility, the fact that we’ve gotten this far, and we’re that close to this being a reality is crazy.

(Kudos to View from North Britain for the video link.)

Seriously, this is both baffling and terrifying.  To be fair, I thought the fact that Bush was elected for a second term, no matter who his opponent, was also baffling, but this is on a whole new level.  The U.S. as a country and society has raised the bar on ridiculous, baffling, idiotic moves.  Yes, of course it’s the political party members who made this decision, but the fact that we have a society in which a political party supported by a very large percentage of our population is not only allowed to do this, but furthermore is praised for getting everyone excited about politics again.  Shit.

Though I guess all we can do is laugh off our collective stupidity, as per usual: SNL did a humorous skit with Palin (played by Tina Fey, of course) and Clinton, which was mainly humorous because of how idiotic Palin was — the very reason why her present position is actually ridiculous and terrifying.

The following is probably the only heartening news regarding Palin that I’ve heard since she graced the public eye with her presence: from “Alaska Women Reject Palin”:

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage.  The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators).  This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state.  I was absolutely stunned.  The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. …

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up.  He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn’t be heard.  Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you’ve been doing the math…  Yes.  The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage! …

The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have things to say.

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