Stories, Books and Life--August 2007

August 2007...You can tell a lot about what's going on in our family by the books on our shelves. Dr. Phil's latest tome is covered in dust. Summer vacation brings out our favorite repeat reads; I like Greeley and Kevin likes Herriot. Backyard Birding isn't shelved; it sits on the edge, ready for a quick grab. There's a shelling guide with shells stacked on it from a recent trip to Sanibel Island. A well thumbed collection of different versions of the Bible. There's always a mix-in of our favorite Christian/Catholic authors/books. C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Scott Hahn, a biography of Dorothy Day. Front and center tonight are a half dozen books with the word "cancer" somewhere in the title. A growing pile of handout pamphlets featuring the same word, cancer, is scattered across the shelves. Kevin's been diagnosed with rectal cancer. Ten minutes worth of conversation in a hospital recovery room with a doctor I had only met moments before has turned our lives upside down and inside out. I'm bothered by the increasing presence of the cancer themed reading material. I look on my side of our bed and it's clear that reading about cancer is beating out the current issue of Photoshop User. On my computer desk, my Bible has a not-typical layer of dust around it and 100 Questions and Answers about Colorectal Cancer on top of it. This surely belongs in another time and place, another life. Not mine. Not ours