Now, things will be tougher......for all

As a person who appreciates literature and history, I am drawn to what King Theoden said in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" when he was up against the largest battle of his life, defending his people against the onslaught of those who look to destroy all he holds dear.....He speaks with his aide, Gamling:

Gamling: Every villager able to wield a sword has been sent to the armory... my lord?

 Theoden: Who am I, Gamling?

Gamling: You are our king, sire.

Theoden: And do you trust your king?

Gamling: Your men, my Lord, will follow you to whatever end.

Theoden: To whatever end...
Theoden: Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this???

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Yes, how did it come to this??  How did it come to the fact that we live in a country that could elect such terrible people to the positions of leading our country??

Agree or disagree with it - things will be all hard, all the time for the forseeable future. For our children, it will be worse.

How did it come to this??

Just when you thought you had problems.....perspective is provided

Greetings all from lovely Camp Run-a-muck....I'm here on training/INDOC and found they allow us access to the Web....The tales of us being isolated like GITMO were greatly exaggerated.

Just when you thought your own problems were a burden, you are reminded about how bad things can get. I am not thrilled with the state of the economy (Who is?)- When the best place for a degreed, seasoned HR professional to do his work and get compensated as he should is in a "war zone", it can make one doubt the words from the "empty suits" who bleat about the recovery.yeah, "Recovery"....rriiigggghhhtttt

That brings me back to the issue at hand....just when you feel your own issues are daunting, you get a reminder from the "Big Guy" upstairs that others have issues that are more serious and will challenge them even more than you can imagine.

Here's a piece of the missive I got from a good friend of mine Jim, regarding his wife Mary (they are my daughter's God Parents along with being life-long friends)-

OK, friends, here's the scoop on Mary.

She has a tumor (cancer) in her pancreas. It has constricted the bile duct and invaded some other parts of her upper digestive area.

The doctor at the hospital is one of the foremost in this field...he only does pancreatic tumor removal...two per week for a number of years now. He thinks Mary has a very good chance of surviving the removal...honest, he said it exactly that way...the surgery will take place shortly

After that, she'll be in the hospital for a week and then confined to bed for another 2-3 weeks, depending on how quickly her body recovers from the surgery. The doctor says it is one of the most involved, complicated, and serious surgeries done these days - including open heart and brain surgery, which I asked for a relative comparision to and he obliged, saying, '...this is right up there with those procedures - only a bit more difficult...lengthy, too...4-6 hours...if all goes well.'

Once Mary has recovered sufficiently from the tumor removal, then chemo and radiation treatment begin, most likely within 8-10 weeks of the removal procedure.

He was quite direct in asking me - yes, me, not her - if I was ready for the challenge...'This is only the beginning,' he said, 'You're in for a battle but I think we will win.'



Kinda puts things in perspective, eh? The broken car, the late credit card payment or your Boss acting like a jerk sseemed like large issues until you walked a mile in Jim & Mary's mocassins, eh? And I was worried because I have to go back to AFGHANISTAN...what the hell was I thinking?

Right about now, my buddy Jim would likely walk single-handed into Taliban Country with an old .22 caliber squirrel rifle than take this on but he will take on this battle and win. Jim doesn't know the meaning of the word " QUIT"....it ain't in his dictionary.

So tonight, when you hit your knees, tell GOD to love Mary & Jim...tell him to take care of her and heal her. Please.

I love Mary & Jim and I hope that you can say a prayer for her. When you are done, hug your loved ones and tell them that you love them. No one but the Almighty knows how much time we have and I just want to make sure you don't miss the chance to tell those you love how much they mean to you. We never know if we will get the chance later on.

Thanks and God Bless.