Monday,Dec 14 2009, 09:37:56 AMI think U shud read this

 Power of Choice: The Right to Live and the Right to Die Robert C. Horn III

It is amazing to me how rapidly one can plummet from the heights of the mountaintop to the depths of the valley. Or at least how fast I could. And did. It was virtually instantaneous. One moment life was glorious and the next it appeared to be over.

In the spring of 1988 I felt on top of the world. My life couldn’t have been much better. The academic year was a truly outstanding one for me. It began with the award of a sabbatical for the fall semester. I was doing research on Soviet-Vietnamese relations in the hopes of expanding a monograph I had written on the subject (during a recent fellowship at the RAND Corporation) into a book. Thanks to Asian colleagues I met at a series of seminars at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, I was invited to speak and conduct interviews in several Asian countries….

More special things happened in the spring semester. For one, our Model UN program made its long-discussed venture from the Far West regional con­ference to the National Conference in New York... At about the same time, I was informed that I was to be one of that year’s recipients of the Distinguished Professor Award….Finally, I spent almost two weeks in Moscow in mid-May at the invitation of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences….

Granted, I was not wealthy financially or in material terms but I consid­ered myself rich in areas of far greater importance: family, religion and employment. Judy and I had a loving and fulfilling marriage and our children (Jeff then in his first year in college, Chris in his junior year in high school and Laura in junior high) were doing well in all respects and continued to be a source of joy to us. We were active members of a dynamic Methodist church that more than met our spiritual needs, deepened our faith, and was filled with wonderful people. Finally, we both had jobs we enjoyed, college teach­ing in my case and directing a pre-school in Judy’s, and that we felt made a contribution to the community. Professionally, my research was going very well.

So what was next? Immediately, there was another trip to Asia. I had been asked by the United States Information Agency to embark on a three ­week speaking tour in Asia that summer under their auspices. The trip would include Australia and New Zealand, where I had never been, as well as Japan and would give me the opportunity of seeing a great many friends, personal and professional. I was eagerly looking forward to it.

The “roll” I was on was about to come to a sudden and devastating halt. The ancient Greeks said that “pride goeth before the fall.” I don’t really think my pride caused it but I was about to learn about the fall in a far too person­al, first hand and major way. I had been having spasms in my left arm. The visit to the neurologist is, unfortunately, etched indelibly on my mind. (The only thing I can’t recall is the name of the doctor; I suppose I have repressed it.) After he examined me, particularly checking my muscles and reflexes, he asked me what I thought might be the problem. “I don’t know,” I replied, still clueless. “A pinched nerve?” Then he said, with considerably more medical accuracy than bedside manner, “Have you ever heard of Lou Gehrig’s dis­ease ?“

Of course I had; Gehrig was one of my baseball heroes. Then I went numb. The blood drained from my head. I couldn’t finish getting dressed, and I had to lie down. There is no good way to deliver such news but his abrupt and harsh pronouncement was awful. The only “consolation” he could offer was that he would have to do a number of tests before a diagnosis could be confirmed.

I knew what Lou Gehrig’s disease meant: progressive loss of muscles paralysis, leading to death within a few, short, agonizing years. I was never going to be normal again. And, very soon I was going to die.

A short time later, I was officially diagnosed as having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS is a degenerative neuromuscular disease that swiftly robs the victim of voluntary muscle control, including those necessary for breathing. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to five years. ALS does not affect the mind, so on is perfectly aware of his or her physical deterioration. By the end, the individual typically is unable to move, talk above a whisper, eat without choking or breathe without difficulty.

ALS is a terminal disease. It is progressive, unrelenting, merciless. Its endgame is inevitable.

.....CHECK NEXT WEEK FOR CONTINUATION.

extract from lifechallenges

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Wednesday,Aug 13 2008, 10:56:21 AMDress Temptation

Struggling to make ends meet on a first-call salary, the pastor was livid when he confronted his wife with the receipt for a $250 dress she had bought."How could you do this?!"

"I was outside the store looking at the dress in the window, and then I found myself trying it on," she explained. "It was like Satan was whispering in my ear, 'You look fabulous in that dress. Buy it!'"

"Well," the pastor replied, "You know how I deal with that kind of temptation. I say, 'Get behind me, Satan!'" ...

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Monday,Aug 11 2008, 02:00:21 PMLove

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weakness.

Love is content with the present, it hopes for the future, and it doesn’t brood over the past. It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories and working toward common goals.

If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that are ...

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