My good friend Bob, a crackerjack attorney who earns his living convincing judges, arbitrators, and powerful executives of the truth, had a little come-to-Jesus with me. Bob has often listened to my troubles and concerns and then hit me with some intense one-liner that makes me go home and completely change direction in my thinking. I secretly refer to him as my Bobby Lama.
I was planning on going to a movie last night with Bob and his partner Rob, who is equally as caring and understanding. I felt sad that I didn't have the energy to join them. As I have done a lot lately, I began my liturgy about feeling lazy and unproductive. There is a very logical side of my brain that knows I have cancer of the blood and I'm going through intensive chemotherapy, but there is always that crazy "made in America" side that says we get up, no matter what, and march to some stupid drum. My drum makes Purdue University's look like a toy.
Bob has such an attorney's knack for knowing how to take the logical truth and reroute it into a convincing line of thinking, usually with some spark of new truth that got lost in the crazy side of the brain.
A few months ago, Bob was instrumental in assisting me with applying for disability. He was telling me yesterday that we did that so I could get paid to heal. My full-time job right now is to heal myself. If I am not constantly working towards getting better, then I am not doing my job. That means resting, and not pushing my body against its natural instinct to repair itself. The reward will be healthy energy some day soon. He said I should not be a slacker at my job. I should stay in bed.
We laughed that I immediately wanted to make T-shirts that say, "DON'T BE A SLACKER. STAY IN BED."
Bob is celebrating a major birthday this weekend. What kind of gift says "thank you for saving my life so many times?"
1 comment:
Dear Bill,
It was great to see you this afternoon. Thank you for your very kind words in today's Lymph Notes. I'm glad our conversation yesterday helped. However, I think you get the short end of the stick in most our conversations. Usually, I'm the one getting a much-needed adjustment to my perpective. You've managed to turn your expereince with cancer into a constant reminder to others about what really matters in life: love, friendship, compassion, respect and dignity. I'm blessed to count you as a friend. Thank you.
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