Humanity

A long time ago, I lived in an old apartment building in Philadelphia. My apartment was on the third floor of this building. The ceilings in the building were probably 12 feet high, so on the third floor, you were a ways up, maybe 50 feet from the ground. It overlooked a busy intersection right on City Line. I used to turn all the lights off at night and stand at the window in the dark. I said one time it made me feel more "human." My girlfriend, now my wife :-) , asked me what this meant. I didn't know, and I still don't. There was just something about it that made you feel like part of this big thing, like everyone who was going somewhere had similar goals and dreams, and they were all working together to make the world run. I've never been able to feel the same sensation; now I live in the suburbs in Virginia. Sometimes in the fall, after the frogs and crickets are gone for the winter and the air is crisp (this doesn't happen until about Thanksgiving here - how I miss the Upper Midwest), I feel something similar. But not the same.

Mrs. Original's best friend has leukemia. She's gone into remission twice, and twice, the cancer has reappeared. It's not looking good. We're not sure how she feels about this, or the implications of it. Death is scary. Especially if you're a few years removed from being a kid. I wake up every day and look at my house, my wife, my son, my body, and all the stuff I am blessed with, and it seems strange that this could happen to anyone. This is a situation we've been dealing with for a long time, as my best friend has muscular dystrophy. I rarely speak about it with anyone. I don't even like to think about it. Every day that he wakes up, he's outliving his life expectancy. I've never said, written, or outwardly expressed the fact that he will die. It's hard to come to terms with. One of the steadfast realities of life, and of "humanity," is that you die when you get old. But here we are faced with this.

So we'll both be losing someone; people who have deeply inspired us, and in many ways, changed our lives. We don't know when, but it won't be long. I've spent so many days in my life trying to make myself strong, physically and mentally. It won't help with this. The hardest thing for me is that there isn't anything we can do to release them from their condition here on Earth. But maybe Earth isn't the most important thing.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: http://www.lls.org
National Marrow Donor Program: http://www.marrow.org/
How to Donate Platelets: http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/0,1082,0_19_,00.html
Muscular Dystrophy fact Sheet and Society Listing: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/md/md.htm

Please do what you can. Thanks.