Aug 20, 2008

Perspective

"Perspective is everything." I've heard many people say that - painters, writers, and photographers to name a few. It's all how you look at things. A different point of view can change your emotional perception of almost any kind of reality.

What shocks the senses is a quick and radical perspective change. Such a change suddenly allows you to see things in new ways. I remember being a young boy and going across the border of El Paso into Ciudad Juarez. Suddenly my middle class world gave way to adobe shacks, outhouses, and barefoot children playing soccer with balls of rags. It was a heartbreaking thing and something I've never been able to forget. I saw the world in new ways. I saw possessions and wealth in new ways.

Mike Dellosso of "Wide-Eyed Fiction" is a writer and blogger who has cancer and is in the middle of treatment. He was given a very hard and shocking new perspective. Time with his family has suddenly taken on a new meaning. Moments with his daughter have become more precious. Tears and fears seem more intense. And he's thinking about trust in new ways too. He's thinking a lot about what it means to trust God.

Yes, I'm thinking about death again. One thing I'm learning about this battle with cancer is that it's quite relentless. The time between chemo treatments isn't long enough to fully recover; the time feeling semi-normal isn't long enough to enjoy; feeling sick and tired gets really old after a while; discouraging stories come at the wrong times.

The other day I overheard a conversation about a boss who died of, you guessed it, colon cancer. The woman talking said he just didn't respond to the chemo or surgeries. Whenever I hear that, my heart seizes in my chest and I start thinking about death. If it can happen to someone else it can happen to me....Read More.