JUST SHOOT ME LIKE A HORSE

Just shoot me like a horse. That was the plea I kept begging my wife to grant me during the past two weeks I have been fighting a stomach virus that I would wish on to know one. On top of that I have had my normal constant 24/7 migraines with what I am guessing maybe 4 hours of headache free time during the last ten days. Not being new to pain and illness I thought for a moment that my guardian angels had final said “enough is enough, he has final done it.” You see I was what you my call an adventurous teenager always pushing the horizon of adventure. My mother tells her friends still that the local E.R. know us by first name. Later in life I was blindsided by these constant chronic headaches that have now been like a plague to me for twelve years. So, kidney stones, appendix, broken bones, all are just badges of honor for me. But combine the stomach virus from Hell and a migraine atop of it and you can shoot me like a horse.
Now that I have given you my state of mind I want to really tell you what is important and it is not my health update. Actually, if you continue to read this I am certain that you will not only identify with it but walk away thinking about it again and again.
During this entire time of illness I have been blessed, no showered with love, friendship, and generosity. However, I must again go back to one person. My spouse, my best friend, my love, my everything, my loving bride Janelle. When we married 20 years ago our vowels said to love, honor, obey, through sickness and health, through good times and bad. Well, if a spouse would get a medal like a solider does for bravery and going above the call of duty my wife would have the Congressional Medal of Honor if it was up to me. So, when you get home or were ever you go and you have time to sit with that one special person, you’re everything make sure they know that you think they should have the Congressional Medal of Honor too. Maybe more importantly let them know that you will do the same for them.
Finally, I also have realized that many of my friends, neighbors look at me and see what looks like a health, onry, normal pain in the butt John. Just being himself. But you cannot see fatigue sometimes. You cannot see headaches. You cannot see depression always. Just like they say on television, “Please don’t try this at home.” But if you went out to your garage and took the largest screw driver you had and jammed it as deep as you could into your brain. Now, leave it there. Some days, it really does not bother you much. Other days the weather bothers it, or you keep hitting it, or it seems like everyone that talks to you grabs it and gives it a good twist. That is the best I can do to describe a chronic migraine.
Now everyone has some sort of pain. Many of us have back, neck, head pain. You could have something more cancer, diabetes, or AIDS. It could even be depression or anxiety I not sure it matters what the pain is since we all live with pain and well deal with pain differently. The old faithful saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Have you ever stop to think about the person being a “jerk” might be actually having a bad day because his “screwdriver” has been twisted by everyone he saw today? Yeah, but he looked fine. Right? Well, who are we to say what is “fine.” So, maybe the next time someone goes flying by you in their car on the way home from work or is a jerk in the store. I even caught myself thinking, “I wonder if he is a kidney donor and he is rising to the hospital to save a person’s life.” Wow, would that be cool!
Just maybe if we gave each other a little slack the more often we would get slack back when we are the ones being the jerk! You may be surprised letting them off the hook may have let them coop with their pain one more day and it also has its own self-rewards. Sure, you’re going to let off a few real buttheads but in the long run does it really matter.

NORMA AT WESTLAKE

Kansas City at the Westlake hardware store on Sunday morning is the first time I met Norma.  Norma was standing in a full green winter coat, scarf, with matching purse and gloves.    Her actual height was approximately five foot but her presences was much grander that than.   Norma was standing at the checkout counter opening a box about the size of a shoe box to see how many tulip bulbs it had in it before she purchased it. 

 

I was standing behind her and in my typical ONRY mood I said, “now that you have opened it you must buy it.”   She turned to me and said, “I plan on it, just that a box of this size should more in it and you’re the man that helped me the other day with my car.”   I replied I did not recall that but try to help when I can.   She continued with the box while explaining that she buys the flowers and grows them to give to others.     During our conversation she mention that she needed help at her home and that her family was not nearby to help.  She was asking the clerk if they had someone that would wash her car, or clean the front porch at her house.    I gave her my home and cell phone number and name and told her to call me when she was ready for those projects and that I would either come do it myself or recruit family and friends to help.

 

We parted ways with her blessing me and putting my information neatly in her purse.

 

On the way out the several other people that were in the lines around the checkout counters stopped me to tell me that I was a “good” man.   My reply was that, “I did not do anything that you would not have done if you were next in line and would have heard her.”

 

My next stop that morning was at the Hen House just to grab milk and bread and few other essentials.  While in line I notices that the was a very  pregnant lady in line with a grocery cart half full of groceries and also a two year old little girl  with red hair that either was trying to help mom or wanted to eat everything in the cart.    Regardless, Mom eventually ended up holding the child on side since her other yet to be born child was taking up all the other space.   She continued to struggle to pick up each grocery item and then shift again to get the child back on her hip.    I was now paying and done with my shopping.    I put my cart aside and went back and knowing that a mother and/or a little girl was not going to let me hold her.  I just walked up, introduced myself to the little girl and started telling her about my little girl.   As, I continued telling her she held still for her mom and I was able to get all the groceries out of the basket.    We smiled at each other and she thanked me repeatedly as I walked off.

 

Each of these gestures took me less than ten minutes.  I not bragging, I just want you to pause and think about how you can change the outcome and the outlook of someone else’s day or problem with just a few moments of your time or kind words.    Now whether you voted for President Obama or not he is our President and he is telling us the truth.   We are in a mess; we will get out of this.   We cannot rely on the government to fix it all, and the fix is not going to be fast.    We must take some of the responsibility ourselves and we must do what is right, take responsibility.    If we start at the bottom and work our way up doing good, positive, small things they will eventually become habit.  If we all do our part we can change the tide this Tsunami of POO and make OUR land the great place it is and should be.