Sobering Television....

It's no secret that we use this blog as a platform sometimes...To prove a point, to ask a question, and sometimes to urge action. What am I saying this time?  Well, I travel for a living but not like a typical road warrior. I've got a tremendous balance of home life and road life. When I'm traveling I enjoy HBO because I'm too cheap to buy it from Directv. After dinner tonight I caught about 90% of a show called "How To Die In Oregon". I recommend watching if you can make it through the whole thing.

It's an incredibly sad story about several individuals but mainly focused on a 54 year old woman named Cody Curtis. She shows grace under strenuous and painful circumstances while dealing with a rare form of what I assume is liver cancer. She gets to a point where she is of sound mind but failing body and decides that assisted suicide is her answer. She's doomed by this disease as it is....to cut short the pain of her last days seems only a blessing. I can't explain how touching it was to watch her family deal with this decision...what almost seemed like a necessary decision. The weeks leading up to her decision found her feeling oddly - ok. She had little pain, very little suffering...but the doctors knew her plight and suffering was only days around the corner. Her husband, realizing that he had to say good-bye to his wife of 36 years on a Monday evening, was supportive and loving the whole time. Knowing that once she drank a cocktail of some powerful pill that had been crushed and turned into a slurry, she would be gone in mere minutes. From outside her bedroom window, the camera caught her last minutes on earth.

How do you hug someone enough, kiss them enough, tell them how you feel enough to make sure that when that time comes...they do it with the full understanding of unconditional love and support. Could I do the same for Kim...could she do the same for me? God forbid we ever have to cross such a horrible path but I'm certain that the Curtis family would have said the same thing had they watched another family on TV do what they did. When does the pain of life give way to the pain of separation....and when does the latter seem easier to deal with?

Its very moving to see love like that. Very moving to witness that decision and the way it was portrayed. Say what you will about assisted suicide...this was an incredibly interesting documentary and it was not done in poor taste. I love my wife so very much. I've run her through the ringer over our years together. I've pushed her to her limits and all she's ever done is love me back.

I've got a keeper. She's my partner. She's the one I'm meant to be with no matter what happens in this life. I want to hug her bigger everyday, kiss her more every day, appreciate her more everyday, and support her with love and encouragement...because like it or not, our days are truly numbered. It's not that I realize that today and plan to "change" my life by watching this show, but it certainly brings into perspective what is important in this world. My wife and my little girl are my everything and I want to be the best husband and daddy that I can be....you only get one shot.