Thoughts on all topics from the twisted mind of a Midwestern writer
Iowa Scribe
  • About
  • Blog
  • Plays
  • Poetry And Prose
  • Columns
  • FAQ, Etc.

Fighting is always better with friends

7/25/2019

0 Comments

 
Charles City Press, 7-25-19

This past weekend, I flew to Atlanta to visit a friend for a couple of days. It was a spur-of-the-moment trip, and there was no specific reason for doing it, other than I just wanted to see my old friend, and that’s enough.

Tuesday night, I went to a substate baseball game in Waverly with another friend. Wednesday, it’s Cedar Rapids — to help out another friend, who’s fighting cancer, like me.

He needs to see me, and I need to see him. And that’s enough.

This weekend, my youngest daughter is flying in from Colorado to see me. The rest of my immediate family is driving up to my home from different corners of the state. I’m going to grill some meat, and there might be a rousing game of cornhole played.

Feel free to stop by. I’ll grill you a burger. If you want to play some cornhole, be prepared for my young nephews to kick your butt. They will humiliate you, in a kind and friendly way.

I’m 10 days from surgery that’s going to put me out of commission for a little while. It’s a side skirmish in a larger battle that I’ve been fighting since 2015.

My cancer diagnosis didn’t look good back then. My surgery nearly three years ago was physically devastating. I was under the blade for more than 11 hours. I was in the hospital for a month, recovered at home for another month. I could not eat any food for three weeks. I could not drink water for two weeks. I could not walk for quite a while — I could barely sit up for several days.

If I can go through all that and come out alive on the other side, anyone can do anything, my friends.

Six months of chemotherapy later, and thankfully the cancer was nowhere to be found — for about a year and a half.

It popped back up and showed itself in March, so I’ve been going through more chemo since then — and now, the impending surgery. I’m told it’s not nearly as extreme as my previous surgery, and prospects look good. We’ve caught the cancer early, it hasn’t spread, I’m physically healthy enough to handle it. My doctors are optimistic.

But, of course, I’m still scared out of my mind.

“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul.”

That’s a quote from Coach Jim Valvano, something he said in a famous speech he once gave. It’s known as the “never give up” speech.

He was dying of cancer at the time. I remember watching it as it happened live on ESPN, and thinking then that it was more meaningful than any ball game I’ve ever seen on the network — and I’ve seen a lot of them.

I’ve thought of that speech often the last few years. By example, Valvano showed us that as horrible as cancer is, it can force you to put life into perspective. This is one of the reasons why I’ve recently been so intent on connecting with friends, new and old.

“If you laugh, you think and you cry — that’s a full day,” Valvano said. “That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

I recently laughed out loud at some guy on Facebook who commented that he wanted to fight me. He disagreed with my opinion in a column I’d written, and said he hoped he’d “run into me around town.” He claimed that wasn’t a threat, but I’m a 51-year-old who’s not stupid. I’ve been threatened before, and know a threat when I see it. I also know that this is a guy who’s doing life wrong.

First of all, you don’t want to fight a cancer fighter. You’ve got nothing to gain, and a cancer fighter is not afraid of you. Cancer is much more scary than you’ll ever be. If you win, you’ve beaten up someone fighting cancer, so you’re the jerk. If you lose, you’ve been beaten up by someone with cancer, so you’re a failure.

Second of all, you’re really going to threaten to beat me up because I dare to have an opinion that’s different than yours? Maybe instead you should come on over. I’ll cook you a burger and we’ll play some cornhole, where I’ll humiliate you, in a kind and friendly way. I’ll also connect you with some professional people who might be able to help you, if you want. Maybe we can even be friends.

Because friendship is what it’s all about, folks. There have been times when some of my oldest, most devoted friends and I haven’t been able to agree on anything. We’ve darn near come to blows. But we’ll always be friends.

We seek out friends and allies all our lives, from the moment we’re toddlers and aware of the world, all the way to our final moments of cognitive thought. I believe it’s a survival instinct — the world is a dangerous, threatening place, and we seek out others who make us feel safe and secure.

Back in the day of the caveman, that usually meant safety from natural disasters and saber-toothed creatures who wanted to eat you. Nowadays, it might mean safety from attacks by schoolyard and internet bullies, or safety from the wrath of your local clique of vindictive mean girls.

Or maybe safety from the pain of cancer, surgery and recovery.

I’ve been seeking out friends, old and new, for the past few weeks. These are the the people who I feel safe with. These are the people who make me laugh, make me cry, and make me think.

And they won’t let me fight alone. They won’t let me give up. And that’s enough.


0 Comments

You can love it or leave it, if your name is Trump

7/18/2019

0 Comments

 
Charles City Press, 7-18-19

“If you’re not happy here, then you can leave. As far as I’m concerned, if you hate our country, if you’re not happy here, you can leave, and that’s what I say all the time. That’s what I said in a tweet, which I guess some people think is controversial. A lot of people love it by the way. A lot of people love it, but if you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, very simply, you can leave. You can leave right now. Come back if you want. Don’t come back. It’s okay too, but if you’re not happy, you can leave.”

Those are the exact words of President Donald Trump, a person who possibly complains more than any other elected American in history. It’s incessant and perpetual. Every speech, every tweet, every offhand comment is little more than a list of knee-jerk complaints about America.

“If you’re not happy, you can leave.”

And you know, he’s right. You can leave. If you’re a multi-millionaire, or perhaps a billionaire, who’s had everything handed to you your entire life and has never been held accountable for anything you’ve ever done, it’s easy to get out of anything. Just leave.

If you’re not getting good grades in your rich-kid private prep school, you can leave. You can find another rich-kid private prep school. And another, after you leave the second one. It’s easy to leave, when Daddy’s rich. There are plenty of other schools. Maybe the teachers at the new school will be more forgiving after you physically attack one of them.

If you’re not happy with getting drafted into the military, if you don’t love our country enough to serve when you are called, you can pretend you have an injury, like maybe a bone spur. You can even get the Trump family doctor to back you up, if the price is right. If you’re rich, you can get out of it, over and over and over again. One of the poor kids can die in your place. Because a lot of people love America.

Or when one of those other kids who loves America gets captured, and tortured, you can say you’re not impressed. You can say he’s not a hero, because heroes don’t get captured. You’ve never been a fan, anyway. You don’t like people who get captured. When you’re a Trump, you can say anything.

If you aren’t happy with your marriage, you can leave. And leave again. And again. You can even cheat on your wife with a porno actress. You have that option, when you’re rich and unaccountable.

If your business is failing because you’re a terrible businessman, you can hide behind bankruptcy laws and get out of there. Over and over and over again, you can leave. You can also refuse to pay your employees or the contractors you hired. Why should they expect to get money for their services? Why are they complaining? They love America, don’t they? Shouldn’t that be enough?

If your taxes are too high, you can cheat on them. Or you put all your capital in a foreign bank, and never show anyone your returns. You can exaggerate your wealth to the insurance guy, and undervalue your wealth to the tax man. If you get caught, you can hire lawyers to fight the country you say you love, and delay your penalty. When your lawyers run out of arguments, you can just leave the country.
When you get caught lying, over and over and over again, to the American people, you can always blame the reporters. You can always scream “fake news.” You can even call those reporting your lies the “enemy of the people.” When some maniac believes you, and kills one of them, no one will blame you. You can do that, when you’re Donald Trump.

When you’re President of the United States, and you’re mixed up with criminals who are accused of molesting, abusing and trafficking children, you can always make racist comments on Twitter to get everyone riled up and distract attention away from your own disgusting actions and incompetencies. When you’re rich and unaccountable, it’s better to be associated with alleged racists than with alleged rapists.

When foreign adversaries attack our elections, and you welcome them because they’re working in your favor, and you obstruct justice to try to cover it up, you can always hire a crony who will protect you, and lie for you as U.S. attorney general. You can do this, when you’re Donald Trump, because Donald Trump is not held accountable for anything.

All his life, when things haven’t been going well for Donald Trump, he’s just left, and moved on. If he doesn’t love it, if he’s not happy with it, he can leave.

You know who can’t leave, though? The children, ripped away from their parents, who are dying in Trump’s cages. They can’t just leave.

People who can’t afford health care, who need treatment, or surgery, or affordable medicine. They can’t leave.

Soldiers on food stamps, and veterans with mental health issues — they aren’t going anywhere. Neither are black men in prison for misdemeanors, or black mothers who watch their unarmed sons get choked to death for inexplicable reasons.

Farmers who can’t get a fair price for their crops can’t leave. Cops who fear for their lives every day can’t leave.

Teachers who need a second job to make ends meet can’t leave, either. Neither can children getting shot at in schools.
People breathing dirty air, or drinking poison water simply can’t just leave.

They aren’t happy in America. America has let them down. They have no choice but to stay, though, and work to try to make it better. That’s what adults do. That’s what people who are accountable do. That’s what people who love their country do.

When you’re Donald Trump, there’s always an escape hatch. When you’re Donald Trump, you can always leave. That’s what he says, “all the time.” He’s clearly not happy in America, he complains about it all the time, day after day. It’s incessant and perpetual.

I have a few complaints of my own, but I love America, and I’m not going anywhere. This is my home. Don’t you dare tell me I should leave. I’m going to stay and try to fix the things that are wrong with it.

While I’m doing that, I’ll also wait politely for Mr. Trump to follow his own advice.

Please leave, Mr. Trump.

Come back if you want, or don’t come back. Either way, you’re not helping, sir. You’re making it much worse.

Please, let the adults handle this. Just leave.
0 Comments

    IowaScribe

    Thoughts on all topics from the twisted mind of a Midwestern writer. Playwrighting, poetry, journalism, sports, hunting, fishing, rock music, movies, good food and
    progressive politics, among hundreds of other things.  
    Contact Iowa Scribe.

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    May 2011

    RSS Feed

    Picture