2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s to the happy thought that by this time next year, I will be writing something like “the unprecedented advancements in cancer research this year have led to a cure, what a wonderful year this has been!”

$270 Million

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - According to the Washington Post, the 2010 election cycle saw “Independent groups have reported spending $270 million so far, but that number does not include tens of millions of dollars more that were not disclosed to the Federal Election Commission."

I don’t want to wax the political philosopher here, but I would like to toss this out for consideration. The Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Act provides $150 million to the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. Take a little look-see at those numbers, my friends. I don’t particularly care what party you are affiliated with, or if you are ‘red’ or ‘blue’ (Silliness, this is America. We are basically shades of purple, if you think about it.), those numbers are kind of a disparity to me. We spent so much for such fleeting dust in the general time/space continuum, when we might have been jacking up funding that can give a cure to an entire planet. A FOR-EV-ER cure.


I would like to respectfully submit that our newly and formerly elected politicians consider spending just a tad less on mean-speech ads and tell the independent groups to donate the money instead to breast cancer research. And then tell us you are doing that; you might be shocked at how many people vote for that kind of gesture. I could be wrong, but it’s it fun to live in a country that allows me to think such thought – and be allowed to put it in print! Whoo-hoo, yay America!!! :)

Ambition

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - I read a facebook post recently that said something like ‘I don’t mind if people are ambitious, I just want them to admit it.’ I’ve heard about some pretty blatant ambition lately, and quite frankly I find it wholly disconcerting. It’s all over social media sites and even the evening news; Climb that ladder, throw whomever it takes under the bus to get to the next ‘level’, disparaging others to make oneself look good, you name it. And not just in the political arena, just in the regular business world! I don’t mind reading about these types of folks, they are pretty clear about what they want and there is something to be said for that kind of candor.

But, today I want to tell you about George and his ambition. In his world, he’s about as important as you can get. He’s got a big, juicy title (several, in fact, and they are so big they can’t all fit on a business card. That alone should throw the overachievers into an apoplectic fit.) He is treated like a superstar, king or even deity by the people who come to see him in his place of business. (Ok, maybe not the nurses, but they do love him. They just don’t genuflect like the rest of us.) I don’t know his salary, but I’m sure it would make people envious as well. In other words, he is the most successful man that I know. King of the hill, top of the heap, a-number-one, just like the song says.

This is my favorite part of George, however. He is compassionate, gentle, kind and quick-witted. He doesn’t parade around in $3,000 suits or insist that we be silent while he is present. He never shakes my hand, he hugs me instead. When he talks to my children, he smiles at them and addresses them as if they really matter to him, and aren’t just nuisances in the way. He has cried with patients who are sick, were too sick to make it, and laughed with the ones who could continue on. I asked him once what else he could possibly want from life, what would make him retire to a life of leisure and luxury. His response should be an example to all, in my opinion, and why George is the most successful man I know.

He said, quietly, “I would like to be put out of a job. I would like a cure for cancer.”