Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Ditsy Tanya's Almanac #1



Well, I have agonized for a couple weeks now on what the trend for this blog for 2009 should be. And I finally decided. (Now, I'm not talking "agony" in the actual pain sense. Mental maybe, as I struggle with what to write about. Those bloggers who do it every day amaze me.)

I'm going to blog writing/family stuff when the mood hits. In fact, I still owe the blog "The Big Warm." But once a week I will dedicate one blog as "Ditsy Tanya's Almanac." with apologies to Poor Richard's Almanac that featured the aphorisms of none other than Ben Franklin, another of my literary heroes, thanks to about a hundred years teaching American Lit to high school juniors.

Ditsy was my childhood nickname, and I hated it. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. But might as well put it to use now, as there is nothing poor about my life. It's rich in all the good intangible things.

So here goes:

Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be.
--H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

This aphorism is dedicated to the special people in my life who are fighting cancer. Most specifically today it's to a Texas cowboy I met on a testicular cancer loop. You guessed it. That ugly thing came back over Christmas and knocked him in the gut. Right now he's finishing his second week of chemo. Now I know, and he knows, that it's gonna work. TC fortunately is one of the curable ones. It's just such a hard road for a guy to go. It's hard on those who love him. And it's harder than ever on him because of how hard it is on those who love him.

He started to lose his hair today, so he let his little daughter have fun giving him a Mohawk.

So here's to you, buddy. Hang in. One day at a time.


(Ps. I took the picture and used it today simply because I like it.)

1 comment:

Helen Hardt said...

Hi Tanya -- I well remember that quote from Life's Little Instruction Book, I believe. So true. And so hard sometimes! I'll be thinking about your cowboy friend. We have a good friend (my dh's mentor, actually) who's been through TC, also.

Helen