Death Week

What a week this has been! A friend and co-worker died this Tuesday from a hard fight with pancreatic cancer. He was 39 and left behind his wife and 5 kids.

Kai will be sorely missed. It was an absolute pleasure to have developed a relationship with him in areas we both were passionate about……sports, our family, and just the usual trash talk. He had the heart and competitive nature of a warrior. He was so unselfish and would always seek fairness even if it meant a loss for him. It always meant so much more when he did it, simply because he was so competitive. It warmed my heart to have seen the people in production love and respect Kai. That speaks volumes of Kai.

May he rest in peace.

On another note, two actors have died today and one died yesterday. It’s death week!

The first was Ed Mcmahon who was best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show. Never really watched any of his material but he seems to have been well known. He died at 86. I’m a happy man if I make to that age.

The second was Farrah Fawcett who was best known for “Charlie’s Angels” and consumer product commercials. She died at the age of 62 of anal cancer.

Lastly, the legendary Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 at 12:29pm today. No need to expound on his resume. He will go down as the best pop star ever.

All this death really brings to light just how fragile human life is. A small clutter of molecules can bring down a species that invented airplanes, rockets, and nuclear weapons.

More importantly it reminds me just how much one needs to invest in the relationships you have with the people you love. In the end, that’s the only thing you’ll care about in your death bed.

Dominic Dancing

Dominic getting creative with his dancing:

Candles and Prayer

A week ago I got the idea of really embracing the symbolism in Catholicism. Actually, it’s more then just embracing it, but living it. As a start, I bought a candle wrapped with a picture of Christ. The idea was to have it be a tool for prayer.

Of course, there is nothing innovative about this at all. In most of the ancient [and modern] world it has been the natural language of mystical expression. In fact, Catholicism more then likely borrowed this practice from ancient Egypt.

At any rate, it’s been very effective in getting the kids more active in their prayer life. I start off by lighting the candle, followed by a “In the name of the Father…” and then circulate the candle as your turn comes up to pray. The candle seems to help them focus more and give it more of a mystical feeling to it. When it reaches the last person (me), it’s ended with and “amen” and we kiss and hug each other good night.

It’s a good tool for families who either want to improve on there prayer life or simply want something that works well with kids.

Rough Week

It was a rough week. With Jojo breaking his arm in two and Sonia getting an abscess on her gums causing her to get her tooth removed; we didn’t get much sleep.

Jojo fell from grandpa’s Toyota Tundra and his whole weight landed on his left arm. He cried for hours. He did well in the emergency room though. They put a temporary cast on until the swelling would subdue. The days that followed were full of cries because he either moved and it caused pain or it would itch like crazy. A week later it was followed by a clinic visit and he was happy to get a blue cast.

Sonia’s dilemma was a bit more frustrating only because we didn’t know what was wrong with her. Whenever she did manage to stop crying because of the pain, she would simply say her teeth hurt. Evelyn figured it was a cavity but I was really doubtful that her constant pain was a cavity. Cavity pain comes and goes and I just wasn’t convinced a 3 year olds teeth had gotten so bad so quickly as to cause such pain. The motrin we would give her seemed to do little to stop the pain.

A couple days later, we took her to the dentist and they found an abscess on her gums. You could see it as clear as day but we both hadn’t seen it the previous day; so it must have grown over night. They took the tooth out that day. They might have to take more out but they don’t know yet.

Hopefully, next week goes better.