numero uno

I've never had a blog before and I'm just getting a handle on things here, but its going good thus far. Its a nice break from reading Beowulf for Brit Lit. I. Well um, hmm... I'm not even quite sure what to write about. I just got finished reading a childhood friend's book entitled Love or at Least Lust and Friendship. I've known Tom (that's the author) for years; our parents met through Jesuit Volunteer Corps when they were in their 20s and for my entire life we've lived three blocks away from their house. So in a way we grew up together, but definitely drifted apart as we got older; that is, us Charles girls (the four of us) and the Feulner kids (particularly Tom and his brother Tim). Before I picked up the book I knew how the story would end because I knew the basics, but not the details. I had the facts. Tom had a relationship with a girl named Amy who had cancer, and ultimately died when it resurfaced, but that was all. When I read this story, I was transported into Tom's mind, as the book is told from his perspective, and I really felt like I connected with him on many levels. The treatments Amy goes through in her battle with cancer reminded me of my Mom when she was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. So many people are affected in one way or another by this horrific disease, and each experience of course isn't the same. My Mom beat her cancer, Amy did not. And it makes me wonder and worry if my Mom's will resurface in the same way hers did. And what can you do? What good does worrying do? I never met Amy, but I know the possibility that her cancer would return must have crossed her mind every day. Still, she didn't retreat from life and it seems to me, from what I know after reading Tom's book, is that despite the fact that she passed away much too young, she made the most of her time here. In a way, cancer broke her body, but it couldn't break her spirit. I know that probably sounds corny, but that's what the book showed me, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity to read it. If anyone's interested, I encourage them to take a look at Tom's website here: http://www.tomfeulner.com/index.html to read a bit more about the book as well as some of his other work.