Erik, Dan and I had an interesting chat last night about cats and how, out of  all the animals "partnered" with mankind, cats are not domesticated.  They surely know a good deal when they see it (Hmm...humans equal tuna), but they don't provide protection or labor as fits the definition of domesticated.

Which leads to two Sunday questions today:

1.  Have cats domesticated us?

2.  Which has been your favorite pet in this lifetime?

One of the many projects I have up in the air these days is a book/workshop/article on dealing with a diagnosis of advanced cancer in today's medical environment.  As part of the process in prepping the book, I'm doing a lot of reading of non-fiction books these days--books centered around change, hope, specific medical conditions and self-help.

This past week, Erik and I did a bit of browsing at Barnes & Noble and I found a little book called AdaptAbility by M.J. Ryan.  I picked up some good ideas for how I would like to format my book both from what Ms. Ryan did and what she didn't do. 

One of the things I particularly liked about the book was the way she included shaded boxes that set apart more complex ideas, anecdotes or exercises that would otherwise be easily lost in text.  I also liked that she had a final chapter called "Twenty Quick Tips for Surviving Change You Didn't Ask For."  That's certainly a concept I can borrow for my book.

If you're looking for a book on facing change, adapting to unforseen cirucmstances or how to increase your agility in today's business world, Ryan's book would be a good choice to work through over a few week period.  Since I was blazing through the book in a few hours (so I could hand it off to Erik), I found the anecdotes to be a bit thick and some of the lessons to be a bit repetitive.  Managed over a space of weeks instead of hours, I imagine these elements would be reinforcing rather than overkill.

I'm also reading a book called The Patient's Guide to Heart Valve Surgery by Adam Pick, himself a double heart valve surgery patient.  I started reading the book at the recommendation of a close friend whose husband is facing heart valve surgery soon.

I'm not as far along in this book (ie, not done with it) but have also picked up some tips from his format.  He's very clear about the purpose of his book and he delineates at the beginning of each chapter (in simple bullet points) what the reader will know at the end of the chapter.  Brilliant strategy for helping readers/patients quickly parse what's worth their time and what they'll save for later.

On the topic of adaptability, I should note that I read Ryan's book the old fashioned way (book, paper, notebook) and I'm readying Pick's book on my Kindle.  Both seem to work equally well and one saves trees.  Hmmm.

On the personal front, this has turned out to be a relatively easy chemo week for me.  We dropped the Oxylaplatin from the regimen to give my nerve endings a break and also dropped the "bolus" (quick infusion of 5FU) this chemo.  I think both have made a huge difference.  My blood counts were nearly normal two days after the first infusion and my vle days have been transmogrified into sle (slightly low energy) days.  Thank God for vacations of every sort.

Many apologies dear readers for not updating the blog this week...but I've been on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride with various medical opinions.  So I've been busily assimilating those (quite encouraging) opinions into a new framework.

This did not allow, with chemo in the background, much time for musings of any type.  It did allow for some walk/talk time with Erik at Laguna Beach and I've uploaded a few photos of that Wednesday excursion for your viewing pleasure.

The main news on the colon cancer front (I'll provide gory details on the email update list) is that it appears I am, after all, a candidate for liver resection surgery combined with radiofrequency ablation.  This is exciting news as there is potential for curative results rather than just "life extension" results. 

There's a lot more that we need to know between now and when the surgeon thinks the window for surgery will be (late July), so I imagine more assimilation (Resistance is futile tumors!) will be going on during the coming weeks.

So, to regroup, Erik and I are heading out to see Terminator.  That should get me out of warp speed and into time travel.  More cogent thoughts hopefully to follow over the weekend.

TTFN.

Erik

Laura

I finally broke 100 on the golf course for the first time after my colon cancer surgery.  Yaay, me!  I credit Dan for giving me the great advice on Saturday that I really needed to keep focused on balance as I was addressing and hitting the ball.  We got out for an early round today and I put his advice to work.  Very, very cool.  I even got a birdie on the 7th hole.

As for the second barrier, I read a very interesting opinion piece by Jacob Weisberg in last week's Newsweek.  Admittedly, Weisberg's history is left of center, at least judging by the publications for which he's written.  The article addresses the issue of what the Republicans need to do to get back in the game on a nation-wide level.  Given that Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh are the two most vocal (and most heeded?) voices of the GOP now, Weisberg argues for...well, balance.

I love it when themes dovetail.

He suggests that "It's past time for the GOP to abandon Gingrich-era, pseudo-libertarian antigovernment rhetoric and to accept the social consensus behind progressive taxation, retirement security, action to slow climate change and a government role in health care. It also might want to quit defending torture. It needs to move to a neutral or big-tent approach on most social issues, the way Democrats did with gun control and the death penalty."

I agree that such a strategy would serve the Republican party well, not just in garnering them new members and more votes, but also in terms of, as Weisberg says, aligning them with the social consensus of the majority of Americans.

Then, imagine if Democrats in Congess did the same thing; if they joined together on a middle path, less idealogical and more pragmatic.  Good golly, we might just find ourselves fixing the country's problems insteac of busily assigning blame to those other guys (whomever they might be from your perspective.

Now there's a barrier breaking approach.

On this gorgeous, breezy Sunday afternoon, I went out on my patio to empty trash into our outdoor bins.  As I came back, I saw that the wrens, so recently bereft when a crow tore down their nest and ate the egg residing inside, have rebuilt the nest again.

Emily Dickinson wrote, "Hope is the thing with feathers..."

What do you think she meant?

Golf today in sun.

O, white ball, where did you fly?

Tomorrow, we rest.

Dan and I had a great day just doing errands, getting my hair cut while he shopped, and then seeing a popcorn film (Wolverine: Great fun for folks who aren't attached to the original story...and folks who enjoy seeing Hugh Jackman in glorious muscled detail.  That guy Works Out!)

We're home now and hanging out.  Nothing big planned for the weekend.  Just prep work for my doctor's appointment (2nd opinion with Dr. Lenz @ USC/Norris) and some golf.   Always some golf.

I did write a first draft of a new poem today.  It's called "The Stranger and The Word."  Check it out if you like.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend...even if you're not in glorious weather in Southern California.

Phew!  Up early for a walk with Hal and Charlie (it was a doozy, too...hiking hills felt quite good).  Then to the grocery store.  Then to work on several little projects at home.

I also managed to write a draft of my introduction for the book idea I have about cancer and how to deal with fighting the disease in a "360 degree" approach. 

And I made soup for tonight's dinner/novel notes session with a friend who is also writing a (great) book.  I'm going to need to demand more pages from him because I'm nearly at the end of what he's given me so far.

So no political polemics today.  No witticisms.  Just a hello to folks who stop by the blog and a cheery wave from a great day of living this life I've been blessed to live.

I saw two articles and an interactive exercise that would benefit any of us pondering California's budget situation in today's LA Times.  The first article talks in general about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals to slash dollars in just about every category including completely shutting down all State parks.  Sheesh!

The second, an opinion piece, is a good primer for legisltors on how to get this thing we call a state budget moving.  I was interested to hear that we have among the leanest state employee figures in the nation, but that's just an aside.  Timothy Hodson, a professor at Sacramento State University (which is looking forward to budget cuts, I imagine) urges Republicans to remember they are in the minority and have been since Hoover.  Partisan solutions should be kept to a minimum in such a case.  He then reminds Democrats that the last time the State legislature really worked well, Republicans were given meaningful committee assignments and invited to participate in the process of legislating by doing more than blocking a 2/3 vote.

The third, and most interesting to me, was a tool to calculate how you would make cuts and/or increase taxes to erase our $24 billion deficit.  Without doing any borrowing or other fancy footwork, I got to within $5 billion with $9 billion in cuts and $10 billion in new taxes.  (I can hear conservative apoplexy from here but I stand by the idea that we are the State, we allowed ourselves to get into this mess, so we need to pay more and spend less both.)

Here's my "package" of proposals.  The only trouble with this tool is that it doesn't allow for more options and more subtlety.  So some cuts I'd be willing to make were too all inclusive for me to include...especially when it comes to health care for kids, elderly and the poor.

Spending Cuts:

Cut Education at K-12 and State colleges (the State college $ can be recouped from the Federal budget): $6.8 billion 
Various cuts in Human Services: $649 million
Cuts in Health $200 million
Cuts in Law Enforcement: $395 million
Transfer 1/2 of Car Tax increase to General Fund (1 time fix): $250 million
Add a 4th furlough day to State Workers: $450 million
Cut the Legislature's Budget in half: $120 million

Tax Increases:

Increase top income tax bracket by .7%: $5 billion
Assess Commercial Properties outside of Prop 13: $2 billion
Increase the Sales tax by including tax on services: $1.1 billion
Tax oil companies for the oil they extract from CA: $855 million
Increase alcohol tax by 5 cents/drink: $585 million
Increase the Corporate Tax rate by .96%: $470 million

I'd love to hear how you would cut the spending and/or increase taxes!  Let me know how your session with the LA Times budget tool comes out.

It being a chemo weekend this Saturday and Sunday, I watched a few films.  Since I'm a writer, a weaver of meaning, I also tend to notice when the universe smacks me on the head with a theme and says "Pay Attention!"

That's what happened with the three films I saw: Grand Hotel, The Reader and The Day the Earth Stood Still.  First, let me say that these films were wildly different in quality, in story and in approach.  I liked all three films.  Grand Hotel is a classic and, as I covered yesterday, has much to recommend itself to the viewer.  The Reader is a tough, demanding film with touchy subject matter and thoughtful nuance.  The Day the Earth Stood Still is a much-reviled remake of a classic movie that had enough action and story to carry me through what most folks didn't care for...and I really appreciated the performances of Kathy Bates and Jennifer Connelly.  (I must also confess to being a sucker for Keanu Reeves even though most folks I know would find that inconsistent with my general tastes.)

Despite the differences in quality and story line, each of these films came across to me as a metaphor for what it means to be human.  In each film, deeply flawed characters express or experience moments of grace.  They do so in various ways.  In one film, an ex-Nazi guard (and arguably a child abuser) tells the truth about horrific things she had done in the past.  In one, a thief gives back what he's stolen out of compassion for the man he's robbed.  In the other, a woman and her stepson forgive each other and thereby (spoiler) save the world.

It got me to thinking, seeing all of these movies, about how we are capable...each and every one of us...of terrible evil and wonderous good.  How we make choices in our lives and sometimes they're the wrong choices.  How those wrong choices can inform us to make better choices next time.  And just how damn essential it is to understand that we and those we share this journey with are human.  Flawed.  And yet able to, in our best moments, approach the divine through mercy, kindness, understanding, and something so simple as reading a book to a person who's done nothing to deserve it.