pure, unadulterated, worth-a-cry sappy!

sap·py

ˈsapē/

adjective

1. 1.

   informal

   excessively sentimental; mawkish.
2. 2.

   (of a plant) containing a lot of sap.

hi, i'm in tremendous pain, nearly caving in to the claim of 9.9/10 on the idiot pain scale.

and constantly beginning, relearning my mindfulness lessons.  restarting relearning in three, two, one...

here is a portion of an entry by a CaringBridge child's mother about her son, whose prognosis is quite poor but whose attitude is awe-inspiring, but not the over-glucosed, rainbowed cotton-candy kind.  he's quite real, which makes that attitude ever more... mindful.

[i "adopt" 4 CaringBridge kids at a time, supposedly.  in actuality, i'm at 8 young ones, each a translation by their journal keeper.  most journal keepers are the mothers, and most are inspirational, themselves.  still, out of respect for the child, i sometimes read through, between, and under the lines to find him or her, and, as you have seen and shortly will again, i read photographs.]

the entry, with identities modified:

The journal picture I've included is of A and his two little brothers, ages 5 and 8.  After A finished chemo (before he spiked a fever), he had to make the long walk over to the cardiology clinic in order to get an echo and ekg.  Neither one of us wanted to make that walk for exams that were needed to close out the LEE011 study for A.  It was just salt in an already open wound.  By the time A finished the heart exams, he was feeling awful.  I asked him to let me hunt down a wheelchair (he had to go back to the oncology clinic to finish fluids) as his 5 year old brother grabbed his IV pole while his 8 year old brother offered to hold his hand.  I don't think I'll ever forget hearing A ask his 8 year old brother, "Hey Bro, can I put my arm around you to help me walk?"  A didn't wait for a wheelchair.  Instead, he slowly walked from one end of the hospital to the other with the help of two brothers who so tenderly love him.

and here is the photo she used to top her journal entry:

the journal keeper readily admits she's a pessimistic realist with a corrective heavenly guiding hand -- quite a combination, and one that i recognize.  i will admit with equal readiness that i would not trade places with her or with A, nor with A's two brothers.

however, she (and i) are working on our attitudes, sometimes with that corrective guidance, sometimes with simple mindfulness -- just sit in it and be -- -- -- -- and so it was that one of the most (personally) beautiful photos i've ever seen was snapped by daisy love merrick's mother, before her last relapse. i bet that was one sassy, swishy walk.  when renaming the photo to match my recollection patterns, i chose "daisy walks away in peace." and so she did.

okay, you tough ones.  you know who you are.  you think you are impervious to my sap, my sappiness. well, friend, gird your loins... because i know for a bona fide fact that daisy love merrick walks this earth, complete with her funky, hippy clothes, and her sassy, swishy walk, and her unique grin (involves the meteoric impact of freckles), as well as her always-remembered mother, father, and sweet brother, and scads of surfing fanatics. but she does not walk alone -- and not with wraith-like holograms of her loved ones -- no!  she walks with treebeard, the eldest of the ent species.  put that in your sap pipe and smoke it.

harrumph.

hat tip to treebeard:

sap·py

ˈsapē/

adjective

1. 1.

   informal

   excessively sentimental; mawkish.
2. 2.

   (of a plant) containing a lot of sap.

© 2013 L. Ryan

AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!

I'm in LOTR mode, somehow, hence the title. This is what the good hobbits of Buckland cried out in times of danger, "Raising the Shire." It seemed both appropriate (and analogous) to what ought to be happening for Kenya.

Awake! Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!

I have attained an age (and sensibility) where I can no longer read this stuff and move on.
So I will bring my unassuaged feelings of guilt *here* and dump it on... you.

How do you handle it? Write a check? Become a walking font of information?
Perhaps you pass it on -- in your own way, in your own media?




PHOTO credit: Jehad Nga for The New York Times
An elderly woman is given water in the Turkana region of Kenya. Many of the elderly are too weak and sick to feed themselves or drink. More photos online...



Lush Land Dries Up, Withering Kenya’s Hopes

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: September 7, 2009

New York Times

LOKORI, Kenya — The sun somehow feels closer here, more intense, more personal. As Philip Lolua waits under a tree for a scoop of food, heat waves dance up from the desert floor, blurring the dead animal carcasses sprawled in front of him.

So much of his green pasture land has turned to dust. His once mighty herd of goats, sheep and camels have died of thirst. He says his 3-year-old son recently died of hunger. And Mr. Lolua does not look to be far from death himself.

“If nobody comes to help us, I will die here, right here,” he said, emphatically patting the earth with a cracked, ancient-looking hand.

A devastating drought is sweeping across Kenya, killing livestock, crops and children. It is stirring up tensions in the ramshackle slums where the water taps have run dry, and spawning ethnic conflict in the hinterland as communities fight over the last remaining pieces of fertile grazing land.

The twin hearts of Kenya’s economy, agriculture and tourism, are especially imperiled. The fabled game animals that safari-goers fly thousands of miles to see are keeling over from hunger and the picturesque savanna is now littered with an unusually large number of sun-bleached bones.

Ethiopia. Sudan. Somalia. Maybe even Niger and Chad. These countries have become almost synonymous with drought and famine. But Kenya? This nation is one of the most developed in Africa, home to a typically robust economy, countless United Nations offices and thousands of aid workers.

The aid community here has been predicting a disaster for months, saying that the rains had failed once again and that this could be the worst drought in more than a decade. But the Kenyan government, paralyzed by infighting and political maneuvering, seemed to shrug off the warnings.

Some government officials have even been implicated in a scandal to illegally sell off thousands of tons of the nation’s grain reserves as a famine was looming.

So far, a huge, international aid operation to avert mass hunger has not kicked in, or at least not to the degree needed. The United Nations World Food Program recently said that nearly four million Kenyans — about a tenth of the population — urgently needed food. [cont.]