I think I might annoy a few folks here, maybe not. I do have bad moments, days, sometimes weeks, but I try not to share my thoughs when I'm in them
anymore. I have a personal journal for those moments.
I do have one person to thank as an insperation, and no it isn't Jesus, or Mohammid or Buddha, though from what I've read they're all inspirational in their own individual ways.
My uncle David, who was born in 1958, is my personal inspiration and also he source of many of my personal demons, especially with my falling out with God, but that's another story...
David was a very active young man. He hiked, backpacked, camped, hunted and fished. He skiid, both alpine and nordic, and snowshoed. He attended mining school and travelled to the far north of Canada to prospect in his summer before becoming ill. David developed Rheumatic Fever while at College and this was misdiagnosed by the local rural hospital and so went untreated for weeks. By the time it was observed to be rheumatic fever, the damage was done to his system and he was afflicted with severe rheumatoid arthritis. He continued his studies but a career in prospecting was not possible with such an affliction.
Through the years he kept up his good humour, continued to hunt and fish and enjoy the outdoors experience while he could. Though crippled and in pain, he spent many cold wet mornings in a swamp waiting for the ducks to come in or on the water, fishing for walleye, pike or bass. He got married, only to have his wife leave him. With the drug coctails he was on, children were out of the question. There may have been other reasons, I really don't know.
I rarely heard him complain, only on really bad days or shorty after one of his knee replacement surgeries when I visited him in the hospital. The nurse was coming with the 'torture device'. The physio-therapy contraption that would force him to move his knee. He made jokes, yet knew the extreme pain was coming. I told him I could stay, but he became serious and told me to go.
He got out hunting one more time before he died. He was deer hunting with a friend. He never left the truck but didn't care. He just enjoyed nature. He was that kind of outdoorsman. Not the gung ho red neck kill everything, but rather more of the David Suzuki, respect nature kind of man. He needed shoulder replacements and knew this would be the end of hunting for him. By then his kidneys had started to fail as well. This was an expected effect of the drugs he had been taking for 20 years. We all offered our kidneys to him, but he knew better than us, he wasn't a good candidate for a transfer.
Still, with Dialysis every other day, he managed to make the 5 hour trip to my wedding, sandwiching it between two dialysis sessions. He was so thin, but so very happy to be there. Still making bad puns, still the same David that took me hunting when I was five. (I saw a Ruffed grouse, "Look uncle David, a wild chicken!")
Later that year he went into the hospital for his first shoulder operation, but his other organs had started to shut down. My mother spent his last month visiting him in the hospital. It was the ice storm of January 1998. He was 39 when he died.
There were a lot of strangers at his funeral. Young people from the local pool hall, old people from the Arthritis physio-therapy pool, people from the Dialysis clinic.
One by one they spoke of how David touched their lives and in some way saved them from themselves. One man from the pool hall credited David for helping him turn his life around. The Arthritics said he was a shining beacon and the highlight of their day. The people on Dialysis said their treatment was cold and depressing before David showed up. Now it's a social event.
I guess what this taught me is life is life. You only get one shot at it. The only thing you leave behind on this earth is your legacy. If God gives you Arthritis, go fishing and play pool. If you see someone in need, help them, even though in some ways you may worse off than they are. Actually that's what the guy from the pool hall said. Here is this guy on disability, on dialysis with crippling artheritis, playing pool, trying to help him out. Talk about inspiring.
I don't think it's making the best of a bad situation. It's making the best out of life, period.
Thank You David.
Rest Well.
I do have one person to thank as an insperation, and no it isn't Jesus, or Mohammid or Buddha, though from what I've read they're all inspirational in their own individual ways.
My uncle David, who was born in 1958, is my personal inspiration and also he source of many of my personal demons, especially with my falling out with God, but that's another story...
David was a very active young man. He hiked, backpacked, camped, hunted and fished. He skiid, both alpine and nordic, and snowshoed. He attended mining school and travelled to the far north of Canada to prospect in his summer before becoming ill. David developed Rheumatic Fever while at College and this was misdiagnosed by the local rural hospital and so went untreated for weeks. By the time it was observed to be rheumatic fever, the damage was done to his system and he was afflicted with severe rheumatoid arthritis. He continued his studies but a career in prospecting was not possible with such an affliction.
Through the years he kept up his good humour, continued to hunt and fish and enjoy the outdoors experience while he could. Though crippled and in pain, he spent many cold wet mornings in a swamp waiting for the ducks to come in or on the water, fishing for walleye, pike or bass. He got married, only to have his wife leave him. With the drug coctails he was on, children were out of the question. There may have been other reasons, I really don't know.
I rarely heard him complain, only on really bad days or shorty after one of his knee replacement surgeries when I visited him in the hospital. The nurse was coming with the 'torture device'. The physio-therapy contraption that would force him to move his knee. He made jokes, yet knew the extreme pain was coming. I told him I could stay, but he became serious and told me to go.
He got out hunting one more time before he died. He was deer hunting with a friend. He never left the truck but didn't care. He just enjoyed nature. He was that kind of outdoorsman. Not the gung ho red neck kill everything, but rather more of the David Suzuki, respect nature kind of man. He needed shoulder replacements and knew this would be the end of hunting for him. By then his kidneys had started to fail as well. This was an expected effect of the drugs he had been taking for 20 years. We all offered our kidneys to him, but he knew better than us, he wasn't a good candidate for a transfer.
Still, with Dialysis every other day, he managed to make the 5 hour trip to my wedding, sandwiching it between two dialysis sessions. He was so thin, but so very happy to be there. Still making bad puns, still the same David that took me hunting when I was five. (I saw a Ruffed grouse, "Look uncle David, a wild chicken!")
Later that year he went into the hospital for his first shoulder operation, but his other organs had started to shut down. My mother spent his last month visiting him in the hospital. It was the ice storm of January 1998. He was 39 when he died.
There were a lot of strangers at his funeral. Young people from the local pool hall, old people from the Arthritis physio-therapy pool, people from the Dialysis clinic.
One by one they spoke of how David touched their lives and in some way saved them from themselves. One man from the pool hall credited David for helping him turn his life around. The Arthritics said he was a shining beacon and the highlight of their day. The people on Dialysis said their treatment was cold and depressing before David showed up. Now it's a social event.
I guess what this taught me is life is life. You only get one shot at it. The only thing you leave behind on this earth is your legacy. If God gives you Arthritis, go fishing and play pool. If you see someone in need, help them, even though in some ways you may worse off than they are. Actually that's what the guy from the pool hall said. Here is this guy on disability, on dialysis with crippling artheritis, playing pool, trying to help him out. Talk about inspiring.
I don't think it's making the best of a bad situation. It's making the best out of life, period.
Thank You David.
Rest Well.
