Life’s a Beach

A few years ago, two young women were having their picture taken by another woman in the lobby of the Charles M. Schultz museum. The young women had a baby stroller between them, and were standing next to Charlie Brown. Looking at them, you probably would have thought that they had their whole lives ahead of them. What you wouldn’t have guessed was that the whole live of one of the young women would only be 3 and half more months. One of the women joked about how she doesn’t try to get in a lot of trouble, because she always seemed to get caught. Later, as they were looking at the comics on display in the museum, she tried to take a picture, and was yelled at by museum security that pictures were not allowed. The other woman said, “You’re right, you always do get caught.” It was a joke with them the rest of the day, as they walked around with the woman taking their picture.

Switching tracks, last June, my mom had heart surgery for an anerysm that needed to be repaired. While she was on the road to recovery, they hired a nanny. I took the nanny to a few of the sites, and one of them being the beach. I love going to the beach. There is a peacefulness in being there. When my sister died, we had her cremated and put her ashes in the ocean. The ceremony was beautful, and like the right way to say good-bye to my sister. Maybe that’s why when I go to the ocean, I think of my sister, but I never really feel sad, upset, angry, or what have you about her lung cancer and death. But, the day I came back from the beach with the nanny, I went into my mom’s room to talk with her a bit.

A few days later, my mom suggested we go to the Charles M. Schultz museum. I asked my dad to come with us, and he said he would but then changed his mind because he didn’t want to leave my mom alone for so long, even though she said she would be fine, and we were only a phone call and five minutes away. So, the discussion about whether or not my dad was going to go flip-flopped until right before dinner the day we were going. We would leave after dinner.

I went to into my mom’s room to visit and talk with her. And I started talking about the museum and how we joked about me getting caught with everything when I tried to make trouble and what a good day that was even though we weren’t impressed with that museum. And then I told my mom I didn’t want to go to that museum by myself, and I broke down. And my mom told me she thought I would have had more of an issue with going to the beach. In the end, my dad went with me and the nanny to the museum.

So, yeah, I am fine at the beach by myself, but I can’t go to the Charles M. Schultz museum by myself.

Thursday, Dan and I leave for Memphis, for Playing for a Cure. This is organized by a young woman, Jamie Young. Jamie does this event every year because she too has lung cancer. She is beating the diesease. She wants to help others do the same. I will be giving a speech that day. I have done this since the event started three years ago. It always feels like a fine line, giving the speech, like it could either be a day at the beach or a visit to the muesum. I am hoping it’s like a day at the beach.