If you look at prostate diaries you’ll see a story called “Diaper Diaries..the screenplay.” In the story there is reference to a party that I gave for the OR staff at our hospital about ten days after my prostatectomy. The fourth annual ” Pig Jig” was held this past weekend, not at Lake Lanier but at a little cabin I have on the Chattahoochee river.
So, I have this friend, Billy, I love him I really do but he is a ” flaming liberal.” He is indeed a bit too much. I mean he left the Obama sign up in his yard, that I have to pass going to work everyday, for about three months after the election. The reason I love him is that he is a great father, he loves the outdoors and is a consummate river guy. We have hiked together in the Wind River Range, we’ve fished there and better yet he brought gourmet cheese when the rest of us brought freeze-dried stuff…. we didn’t know better… he did.
After the election and the Obama care came to be, I left a book of mine on ” The Decision” in his mail box, remember it is on my way to work. I put as an inscription, ” Billy, I have gone to writin, since Obama care.”
So…. the party is on the river and sure enough even though I forgot to invite him, he shows up anyway, and I am glad he did… did I say I love the guy. In front of about ten people gathered around a conversational circle he says, ” John, did you know that your book may have saved a Liberal’s life. I went and had a prostate exam after reading your book. Really John…this may backfire on you. It really could save a Liberal’s life. Did you consider that?”
“Dammit. What was I thinking and why in the hell did I give you the book? I didn’t mean for YOU to go get checked.”
Anyway, I always go back up to the river to see how much beer was left over and to check up on anything that might need tidying up. While I was there I decided to wet a hook and go fishing. Now the pepe is a problem when it comes to fishing. It’s dangerous. She chases the lure and I worry at she’ll bite at it and hook herself. I gravitated to a technique of throwing a stick, her passion, one way and fishing the other.
The picture above represents me catching a fish while Pepe is chasing the stick and then getting back retrieving it at the point I have caught the fish and am about to release it. What you see is a conflicted Pepe, the stick or the fish that is the question….a ” Decision.”
It ain’t easy. Life is not easy, is not fair and it does not discriminate. Decisions, decisions…some work out and some don’t. I have my share of investment decisions that did not go so well. Folks make decisions about prostate cancer treatment, or not to pursue treatment and then have to live with it, good or bad.
Remember Robert Frost and decision. Just because you took the road less traveled doesn’t mean you took the right road or that there will not be regrets. Research, prayer, luck, good people around you my friend is all you can do…..its complicated and conflicted.
Prostate Diaries 