I'm sitting watching "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" during the holidays, enjoying myself and the general happy tone of the season, and I check my email. I get a notice from a college roommate that he has pancreatic cancer. He's happy, has had one round of chemo, and is in good spirits. Christmas was great, family is good, and he just thought my inquiry into his health deserved an answer. Admittedly, he's got the absolute best outlook on life of anyone I know or am associated with, and that goes a long way in situations like this.
I'm a fairly young person, or I like to believe I am. I've never had to deal with the mortality of any of my friends. Yet. Hopefully not for a while longer. I wish him the best, but his news got me thinking about how we deal with mortality.
I can't say much that hasn't been said by others already. I have no special insights or points of view. Generally, I enjoy dark humor and make jokes about this kind of thing. It's easy to do when it's not too close to home (though I certainly hope if things get tough with me, people don't hold back...I'll need a laugh and it's easy to laugh at myself).
News like this opens the door to taking stock, and that's something I'll be doing as I enter 2020. I'm not prepared (who is, after all?) to really think about the worst outcomes for a dear friend. So I'll remain positive that he's going to be fine. It takes quite a bit to bring me to tears, and I squeezed a few out as Mrs. Bulldog and I talked about this.
2019 isn't ending on an up note, so that only means 2020 is going to be great. All of you be well, and I hope your year ends well and gets better into 2020.
